


Taken For Your Word

by yarnwithpictures



Series: Taken For Your Word [1]
Category: Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Human, Autistic Pearl, Human AU, Implied abuse, Multi, Other, SU - Freeform, Steven Universe - Freeform, Taken For Your Word, pearlmethyst - Freeform, sfw, tfyw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:11:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3922420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yarnwithpictures/pseuds/yarnwithpictures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She glanced down at her slippers and put them on out of habit, trying to stay calm before potentially whacking someone with a baseball bat. She wrung her hands around the grip and grabbed the doorknob."<br/>~<br/>"She considered it again, frustratedly glancing at the ceiling. She noticed a pair of ballet flats hanging from a peg next to the door. This couldn't turn out that bad, could it?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Something moved. Well, something might've. Pearl didn't know what it was, but what else would wake her up at 3:00 in the morning? She looked around her room, propped up on her elbows. Maybe something fell off of the bed? She did roll around a lot. No, that couldn't be it, because there it is again, and it's coming from the yard.

_Shit._

Pearl got out of bed as quietly as she could, and slunk up to the window. She couldn't see much of the yard from here, so that didn't help much. Trying to build up her resolve, she backed away from the window and grabbed a bat that Greg had left lying around when he and Rose had come to visit. She was glad they had decided to go home: Rose and the baby could be in danger. Pearl put that out of her mind and approached the back door. She glanced down at her slippers and put them on out of habit, trying to stay calm before potentially whacking someone with a baseball bat. She wrung her hands around the grip and grabbed the doorknob. Taking a steadying breath, she twisted the knob and pushed, peeking through the two-inch wide space that opened up.

What? Really, what? Pearl sort of just stood there and stared at the person in her yard, patting her dog on the head. Well, he wasn't really her dog. Rose had insisted that he stay with Pearl as a guard dog, at least until she was used to living on her own. Apparently she needed to train him better. Pearl opened the door all the way and let the bat fall to her side. Whoever this was didn't notice her at first, so she took advantage of that and tucked it behind her back before stepping over the landing. "Um, hello?" She got closer before this person even registered that she had said anything, and when they turned to look up at her she could smell the alcohol on them. Amazing. The drunk blinked slowly up at Pearl and slurred something about dogs being great before throwing up right on her feet. Pearl gasped and dropped the bat, cringing and also trying not to move. "My slippers!" she squeaked.

\---

There was someone talking. She couldn't tell how close the voice was. It echoed and drifted in and out of reach, but when she could make it out, it said things like, "Well I don't know!" and "She yacked on my slippers!" The latter was hollered, and the clearest thing that she heard before opening her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. She was used to seeing those by now. She guessed that she'd gotten drunk again, going by her massive headache. Whose house had she gone to last night? A faint memory of waving at Jenny flared and died in the front of her mind, and she started to remember the party at her friend's house...yesterday? She'd slept through days before, so she couldn't be sure. She groaned and rubbed her eyes. Today was gonna be rough. She sat up and squinted around at the small room she was in. Someone had put her on a couch, apparently. There was a bottle of water on the little coffee table in the middle of the room, and a small tv beyond that. She noticed the curtains had been pulled, so it wasn't a bright as it could be in here. She picked up the bottle and noticed another one next to it, but instead of water it was Ibuprofen. She kind of stared at it for a second, and then snatched it up. She felt like she should leave, but something made her want to meet whoever had bothered to give her medicine. She swallowed a few pills and got up on wobbly legs. They felt like noodles with rocks for joints. She steadied herself on the couch's arm and focused on not barfing for a second. "Aw man," she grumbled, "Gotta stop doin this." When the room stopped spinning, she shuffled through the entryway behind the couch. She said, "Hullo?" into the empty kitchen and winced at the sound of her own voice. She sounded like a chain smoker. She really hoped that was a coincidence; she might drink a lot, but smoking wasn't something she ever planned on doing. Like, ever. Gross.

She rubbed at her throat and went through another entryway to her right. Standing there, there was a closed door to her right, and a small hallway to her left. There was a door that looked like it led outside at the end of it. So, the owner of this house was either in the room that she felt like she shouldn't go into, or down the hall. She opted for the safer option and stumbled left, still trying to make her legs feel solid. The room she came to was pretty small because of the washing machine and dryer, and room for the door to swing in all the way. There was another door to her left sitting slightly open, and she could see a shower curtain peeking out.

"Lion!" She snapped to attention, looking for where the voice had come from. She heard commotion from the other side of the door leading outside, and hesitated to investigate. What if this is a bad idea? Should she just leave? She considered it again, frustratedly glancing at the ceiling. She noticed a pair of ballet flats hanging from a peg next to the door. This couldn't turn out that bad, could it? Before she could second-guess again, she reached for the doorknob and tugged it open.

She should have been more cautious about that, because the light that hit her was blinding. When her eyes stopped freaking out, she saw who had taken her in for the night. She was tall, kinda lanky, with strawberry blonde hair cut short against the back of her neck. She had track shorts and tennis shoes on, with a shirt that was open enough at the sides to see the wrap that covered her chest. She was playing with a big, floofy dog that didn't seem to be listening to her at all. "You're such an awful dog. I understand why Rose named you 'Lion' now."

An image of a real lion refusing to play fetch popped into her head and she couldn't help but laugh a little. The tall woman turned and looked at her with surprise on her face.

She felt like she'd disturbed something, and sort of just stood there for a second. She was about to say something, but the tall one beat her to it. "So, what were you doing in my yard at three in the morning?" She didn't really have an answer for that. "You kind of scaled my fence and woke me up, and when I came back here with a bat, you were petting my dog, and then you kind of threw up on my shoes," the tall girl said matter-of-factly.

Her mouth was hanging open by now, and her face was heating up, "Uhh..."

The tall girl continued, "Anyway, I tried to get you to walk inside, but you were pretty much asleep after that, so I just put you on the couch and hoped you wouldn't yack again. What's your name?"

Okay, that's a ton of information to take in. She struggled to form a coherent sentence, "I- uh, A-...Amethyst... Er, did I really barf on your shoes?"

"Well, they were slippers, but that's besides the point: why were you here in the first place?" Amethyst scratched the back of her head, "I... dunno... I don't really remember a whole lot..." She said weakly, avoiding the other girl's gaze. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Pearl," she said, after giving Amethyst a knit look and crossing her arms. "Do you need to use the phone?" Amethyst cringed at the question. She didn't really have anyone to call. "I...no…”

Pearl's stern look softened, and she approached Amethyst with her hands on her hips. "How old are you, anyway?"

Oh, crap. Amethyst heard a stupid remark tumble out of her mouth before she could even consider telling the truth, "Old enough." She was surprised when Pearl laughed at that. "Alright, McLuvin', but you've got to tell me sooner or later." Amethyst felt a grin worm its way onto her face and laughed as Pearl stepped past her and into the house. She realized that she barely came up to this girl's shoulder. She felt fur on her hand and looked down to see Lion the dog blinking up at her. "Hey, little fella. You wanna play?" He let out a cute little yip that stabbed Amethyst's still-sensitive ears like a fog horn. Wincing, she scratched his head and mumbled, "Maybe later."

Amethyst peeked around the wall and into the kitchen. Pearl had a phone tucked in between her chin and her shoulder, and a loaf of bread in her hands. She undid the clip and nearly dropped the phone. "I- I know, Rose- no, I'm fine... You don't have to, you came out here just yesterday, you must be tired... I can handle it! I am living on my own, y'know!" Pearl noticed Amethyst and motioned for her to sit. Pearl dropped some bread into a toaster on the counter and listened to the receiver for a moment. "Right," there was a pause, "she won't say." Pearl glanced at Amethyst over her shoulder, who had taken a seat at the table. She gave her a thumbs- up and turned to the toaster again. "You're wonderful. I'll ask, but don't come over, okay? Let Greg and Garnet take care of you." Pearl put the toast onto a plate and slid it over to Amethyst. She caught a look at Pearls face and blushed a little. She had a really pretty smile. She looked happy. "Okay, bye." She shelved the phone on its wall mount and turned back to Amethyst, who was picking half-heartedly at the food that had been put in front of her.

"You need to eat something," Amethyst jumped at the sudden statement, "Where is that water I left for you?" That reminded Amethyst of the Ibuprofen. "Hey!" she said a little too loudly, "Thanks for the pills, by the way," she rubbed her temple for the tenth time since she'd gone outside. Pearl seemed to color a little, "Oh, uh, you're welcome." Pearl turned and went to the living room. Amethyst leaned over the counter for a second before her hands snapped to her pockets in search of her phone. When she found it in her jacket, she checked for Pearl again before opening a new text window.

1:10 PM Me: Holy shit

1:10 PM Me: What happened last night

Pearl was busy doing something with the couch, and had her back to the kitchen.

1:11 Jenny: Lol where did you go

1:11 Jenny: Nobody knows where you are are you ok

1:11 Jenny: You got smashed last night

1:12 Me: I'm ok, everything's cool, i just can't remember anything

1:12 Me: I'm just kind of in a stranger's kitchen

1:12 Jenny: What!? Did you break into somebody's house!

1:12 Me: Omg no

1:13 Me: I slept on somebody's couch

"Sorry that took so long, I got distracted." Pearl set the water bottle down in front of the uneaten toast and looked at Amethyst, who had shoved the phone into her pocket before Pearl noticed, or at least she hoped so. Amethyst picked up a piece of toast and nibbled on it, avoiding Pearl's eyes.

"Are you ok?" Amethyst looked up at her and chewed slower. Pearl looked...concerned? Well, more like confused.

"Mmhm," Amethyst sipped some water and looked at the counter. She felt her face get hot. Didn't this chick have anything else to look at?

Pearl went to the other side of the table and rested on her forearms so that she and Amethyst were on the same level. "I need to ask you something."

Amethyst chewed on her bottom lip nervously, "Okay."

"Where do you live?" Amethyst honestly hadn't expected that question, and she definitely didn't have an answer for it. "Ehhhrrwelll..." Pearl just raised her eyebrows and leaned forward a little. "I don't... uh..." Amethyst stuttered, "Well, I used to have a place, but I don't really go there...anymore... I just stay with my friends now." Right on cue, Amethyst's phone beeped and hummed in her pocket. She just rubbed the bottle in her hand and bit her lip.

"Can you tell me how old you are now?" Pearl said. She sounded like she was trying to be gentle with that question, but there was a stern tone to her voice that made Amethyst bite her lip a little harder. "Are you a cop?"

Pearl laughed at that, the hard expression on her face from before gone and buried. "Nope, unless you count ballet as a form of law enforcement."

Amethyst smiled a little at that. It didn't loosen her shoulders from their perch next to her ears, but she decided to trust it. "Nineteen."

Pearl's eyebrows raised in surprise, "Wow, really?" Amethyst felt her face got hot again and nodded. "You're pretty young to be drunk and lost in the middle of the night." Amethyst gave her a frustrated look and bit her lip again. "Sorry, not funny," Pearl said. She laced her fingers together and looked down and back up, "Would you like to know some things about me? To make this a bit less awkward, I mean?"

Amethyst fiddled with the plate in front of her, "Sounds good."

Pearl nodded, "Okay... uhh, I'm 22, and I used to live with a really old friend of mine until a few months ago... That's who I was on the phone with." Amethyst nodded slightly. That seemed believable. If she had been lied to today, it probably wasn't happening right now. "Her name is Rose, and she wanted me to ask if you had a place to stay. She worries about stuff like that, you know, she likes to help people." Amethyst raised an eyebrow at that. Shit, really?

Pearl continued, "I started staying with her right after I got away from my parents... when I was old enough to leave. She helped me a lot." Pearl's face got dark for a moment, and Amethyst recognized the look in her eyes. She'd seen it in the mirror before. Amethyst found her hand on both of Pearl's. She tried to look sympathetic. Then, the look was gone. "I'm sorry, I drift like that sometimes." Neither of them moved their hands for a second, and then Amethyst shoved both of hers back into her pockets. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"It's okay," Pearl said, "Do you have family stuff, too? Is that why you're staying with your friends?" Amethyst didn't know how to answer that, either. She could just say it flat out, but experience has taught her that it's a delicate subject. She mumbled something incoherent and cursed herself for being awkward. "Pardon?" Pearl leaned a little more over the counter.

"I'm a foster kid."

Pearl's eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped just a tiny bit. "Oh," was all that came out, and Amethyst hid behind her hair like she always does. Pearl moved, but Amethyst sat still and stared at the holes in her jeans. That is, until another knee joined hers and she looked up to see Pearl had come to sit next to her. Pearl bumped her knee against Amethyst's and gave her a little smile. Amethyst bit her lip nervously and felt the corner of her mouth twitch. Pearl bent a little and looked up at Amethyst from underneath her bangs. Amethyst was incredibly aware of their shoulders touching. She felt heat climbing up her neck and scratching at her cheeks.

"Do you want somewhere to stay? That's not with your friends?"

Holy. Shit. What?

Amethyst's mouth dropped open a little and a choked noise came out. She managed a strangled "Okay," before Pearl smiled cooly and said quietly, "Alright, I'll ask Rose," her leg rubbed against Amethyst's jeans and she felt their skin touch through a jagged tear. It felt like someone had her heart and lungs in their fists and was trying to shove them up her throat and out of her mouth. "What?"

"She has a pretty big house, I'm sure she'll let you have a room." Amethyst's eyebrows disappeared into the fringe that covered the left side of her face. "Oh-I thought-you don't-,"

"Unless you want to stay here for a while? If you don't mind the couch, I mean?" Amethyst swallowed hard, trying to force her lungs to start working properly. "Y-yeah, that's- yeah."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/115237267895/taken-for-your-word


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "1:24 PM Jenny: Is she cute  
> 1:24 PM Me: Shut up  
> 1:24 PM Jenny: LOL"  
> ~  
> "She sat on the step that led to the yard and pet Lion when he came up to her, trying to rub the blush off her face. She mumbled something about boundaries into her hand and reprimanded herself for not having any forethought. Or at least the decency to knock."

Pearl realized that this might not have been the best idea. She hadn't really put any thought into it, either, but still. Amethyst looked pretty flustered by how close she was, and she wasn't the best at figuring out what was okay and what wasn't when it came to this stuff. Were her palms supposed to be this sweaty? And her fingers were shaking. Yeah, flirting wasn't her forte. She decided to move away a bit, and was surprised to notice that Amethyst leaned towards her before she backed away completely. "Uh, I hope you don't mind, I going to call Rose anyway, I just like to keep her updated."

A tiny "Okay," came from under Amethyst's hair, "Go ahead."

Pearl felt bad for pushing it, but at least she had somewhere to stay now. She took the phone out to the porch and called Rose. She hoped her voice wasn't shaking enough for her friend to be able tell.

\---

As soon as Pearl left the room, Amethyst slumped onto the table. She felt like she'd just gotten thrashed by a bear. All of her insides were in a puddle that filled her shoes and dripped onto the floor. What _was_ that? Seriously, did she dream the flirting thing up or...? It was probably the hangover. Yep. Amethyst took a few deep breaths and remembered she had been texting Jenny.

1:14 PM Jenny: No way

1:21 PM Me: Yeah

1:21 PM Me: I kind of just agreed to live with her

1:22 PM Jenny: :0 hold up

1:22 PM Jenny: Howd that happen

1:22 PM Me: Idek

1:22 PM Me: She just offered and yeah

1:23 PM Me: I'm gonna roll with it

1:24 PM Jenny: Is she cute

1:24 PM Me: Shut up

1:24 PM Jenny: LOL

\---

Pearl came back into the kitchen to find it empty. No sign of anyone, besides the plate in the sink. Pearl poked her head into the living room, "Amethyst?" No answer. Where had she gone? Did she leave? Pearl went to the back of the house to look for her. When she reached the back rooms, there didn't seem to be anyone there, either. Pearl went to and opened the bathroom door only to have it slammed back into the frame against her will.

"Kinda naked in here!"

Pearl stood still for a second before what her new roommate said registered. She felt her face turn red. "I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking!"

There was an immediate answer, "'S okay."

Pearl had her hand on the knob for another moment before she turned stiffly on her heel and went outside again. She sat on the step that led to the yard and pet Lion when he came up to her, trying to rub the blush off her face. She mumbled something about boundaries into her hand and reprimanded herself for not having any forethought. Or at least the decency to knock. Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing and she gladly left them behind on the stoop with the dog.

"Hello?"

\---

Amethyst jumped when she heard a scream - or at the most a yell - come from the front of the house. Great, what now? She stopped fiddling with the very confusing shower knobs for a second and listened.

Something rammed into the door. She literally jumped and let out a little yelp before bracing herself against it.

"Amethyst!" Pearl sounded panicked, and also like she was doing something other than just standing on the other side of the door. "I forgot that I have a fencing lesson today, so-," Amethyst felt her thud against the door again, "I'll be back later!"

Out of all the things she could have said, "You fence?" wasn't what she wanted to come out.

"Yeah, and I've really got to go, so I'll see you around 5:00," her voice was already fading into the other room. Amethyst heard her trip over something and curse at whatever it was, and then there wasn't any evidence she'd been there at all besides the echo of the front door slamming shut.

She puffed a sigh and let her arms swing at her sides. "'You fence?'" she repeated, "Could have asked about this junk," she kicked the shower curtain, "Nice one."

\---

2:30 PM Me: Can you bring my stuff over?

2:31 PM Jenny: Does that include the 360

2:31 PM Me: Stop trying to steal my xbox

2:32 PM Jenny: Do you have a tv for it

2:32 PM Me: Yup

2:33 PM Jenny: Dang

2:33 PM Jenny: You have a right to it I guess

2:33 PM Me: I had a right to it in the first place

2:34 PM Jenny: Lol just give me the address

\---

Amethyst hoped this was okay. Pearl would be fine with people coming over, right? Jenny had brought Sour Cream along with Amethyst's stuff. Which was all of three boxes, but still. "You didn't bring Buck?"

Jenny smiled at the little room when she stepped inside, "Nah, he had dad stuff."

"Oh, that sucks."

Sour Cream handed Amethyst a box. "That guy needs to chill. Go to a mayor rave or somethin'."

"A mayor rave?" Jenny laughed and started to fiddle with the tv.

"Yeah, get some old dude beats goin," Sour Cream wiggled and shimmied towards the table and dropped the box he was holding onto it with a _fwump_. The little table audibly creaked and Amethyst winced, "Be careful! If we break something, I'm out!"

"I'm sure the table can handle it," Jenny said over her shoulder, still plugging things into the back of the tv, "There!" The screen buzzed to life and showed Amethyst's dashboard. Sour Cream clapped his hands together with his hands cupped so that it was really loud, "Sweet." Amethyst winced again and shoved him. He fell onto the couch laughing and apologized for forgetting about her hangover. Amethyst flopped down next to him and Jenny sat on her other side. Amethyst grabbed a controller, "What'd you bring?" Jenny sifted through one of the boxes, "Some stuff we could all play together. I hate taking turns."

"Nice," Amethyst pulled the box into her lap and sifted through the pile of mostly first-person-shooters. "Hey, I haven't finished this one yet," she pulled Borderplanes 2 out of the box and checked for the CD.

"Man, the end of that game was rad," Sour Cream pulled the disk out and put it on the tray. The next ten minutes were spent with tiny spats and yelling at the tv, like Sour Cream and Jenny arguing over who got to be Maya. Amethyst just chose Salvador and told them to pick different clothes after the argument got annoying; it sucked when people argued over her lap. They agreed to that at least, and they spent a few hours shooting stuff and blowing up runners. They didn't really do a lot of missions, even side ones, they just goofed around the world and made each other laugh until Amethyst sounded like she smoked cigars again.

\---

Pearl sighed as she made her way outside. At least she hadn't been chewed out for being late. Her instructor knew her well enough to know what her yelling into the receiver had meant. He just laughed it off when she ran through the door, out of breath from running all the way to the studio. She worked harder than usual for most of the afternoon, and she beat almost every sparring partner that she was paired up with. She only lost by one point to another student who was a tiny bit faster than she was. If she hadn't been late, then maybe... no, she just needed to stick with it. She couldn't lose to that girl forever.

Pearl hitched her gym bag higher onto her shoulder and checked her phone. One missed call. Oh no. Was Rose in trouble? Wait, she didn't recognize the number, so that wasn't it. Who left her a message? Pearl held the 1 button down and speed dialed her voicemail. She rolled her eyes at the robotic voice rattled off the date and time before the message played.

"Hey, uh Pearl? I found your number on the fridge, just wanted to tell you my friends are bringing my stuff over... it's not much, just a couple boxes- uhh, they won't break anything, promise...uh, so, see ya soon, i guess. Thanks. Bye."

Pearl felt her stomach twist when she realized who it was, and forgot to keep walking. It took a second after the beep signaling the end of the message before she understood anything that Amethyst had said. There were more people at her house. She felt as if she shouldn't be okay with that, but for some reason she was. She should probably be worried about Amethyst's mention of breaking things, but all that she wanted to concentrate on was her voice. Just, how it sounded. She felt like she was standing in a tiny auditorium with booming music playing and bouncing off the walls and making her ribs rattle together and her heart shudder. It made her breathe a little faster.

She snapped her phone shut and took up a quick pace down the sidewalk. Her palms were sweaty again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for readin'. Here's the tumblr link if you want it: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/115240516095/taken-for-your-word


	3. Chapter 3

Pearl heard laughter from more than one person inside, one was decidedly male, but also kind of squeaky, another really light and carefree, and the third raspy and crackly like fireworks. She listened for a moment and shifted the boxes in her hands before letting herself in, unsure of what to expect. Definitely not what she saw. Amethyst had a kid in a chokehold, her knuckles digging into his white-blonde hair. There was another girl with both of her arms around Amethyst's waist, laughing into Amethyst's back and yelling something about sour cream.  It took a moment for them to notice her. Well, they looked up when the door shut behind her.  

Pearl felt her eyes crinkle with a smile and almost started laughing, "What are you doing?" It took all of two seconds for Amethyst's face to change colors. "Nuthin."

Pearl's stomach started dancing again, and she had to force it to be still with a nervous laugh.  "Well, come do nothing in the kitchen," she patted the pizza boxes in her hands, wiggled out of her sneakers, and strode past the couch, "And take your shoes off, please," she directed that last part at Amethyst's friends, who were staring at her. Had she done something inappropriate again? She hoped not; she hated bad first impressions.  

\---

Amethyst felt Jenny take fistfuls of her t-shirt and shake her by the fabric, "Oh my god." Sour Cream tilted his head up to look at Amethyst from her vice grip on his neck, "You didn't say she was hot." If it was possible, she turned a deeper shade of red, "Ah, shut up," she grumbled and gave Sour Cream another knuckle sandwich before letting him tumble off the couch and tug at his sneakers. Jenny did the same with her flats and followed Amethyst into the kitchen.  Pearl was busy with plates and things, muttering something incoherent under her breath. She was rifling around in the fridge when Sour Cream came in and sat down with the other two. Pearl's head popped into view, "Tea?"

“Yeah, sure.”

“Awesome sauce.”

“Okay.”

Pearl hefted a jug of tea onto the table. Its label read 'Utah' in fancy script.  "Greg brought this over and I never got around to trying it. I don't know why he bothered," she started getting a set of cups from the cupboards behind her, "I don't really like iced tea in general."

"Who's Greg?" Sour Cream said around a slice of pepperoni.  "Family. Who are you two?" Pearl turned after the question and regarded Amethyst's friends, "I'm sorry, I never asked for names."

"I'm Jenny," Pearl nodded, "And that's Sour Cream," Pearl didn't nod that time.  "Like the dairy product?" Amethyst laughed into the inside of her arm, and she thought she saw Pearl look at her funny.  It was fast, but she noticed something flicker across her eyes, like panic or discomfort.  It was gone by the time Sour Cream laughed and ran his fingers through his hair, "Yeah, that's me."

"Er, sorry," Pearl's cheeks tinted a little and she fiddled with a bracelet on her left wrist.  Sour Cream waved his hand around, "It's cool."

Jenny broke in almost immediately, “Amethyst told us you have a dog! Is he cute?”

Pearl sort of puffed up her cheeks and avoided her gaze for a moment.  “He’s fluffy,” she shrugged.

Amethyst chortled and elbowed Jenny, “He’s cuter than you!”

Jenny ‘ha-ha’-ed sarcastically.  Sour Cream pointed a breadstick at Amethyst, “Bet you she’s cuter.”

“You’re on.”

Amethyst jumped off of the stool she was on and tugged on Jenny’s Jacket, “Come on, you gotta go battle this dog for me.”

“Man, that dog’s got nothin’ on me, I’ll beat it in two seconds.”

Sour Cream jumped up and yelled, “Dog battle!”

Amethyst turned to Pearl to ask her to judge, but stopped when she saw her face. She had her hand over her mouth and the other fiddled with her bracelet.  She looked like a lost little kid.

Amethyst started chanting “Dog Bat-tle! Dog Bat-tle!” and shoved her friends down the hall. Sour Cream caught on and took up the chant as he marched down the hall. Jenny caught Amethyst’s eye and winked. She followed Sour Cream down the hall, who didn’t notice Amethyst slip back into the kitchen.

“Hey, are you ok?”

Pearl had her eyes closed, and her shoulders were shaking a little.  She didn’t respond.  Amethyst hopped onto the table and sat criss-cross in front of Pearl.  She noticed Pearl’s thumb rubbing rhythmically against the little beads on her bracelet; she looked like a tea kettle in one of those early cartoons, about to burst.  It made Amethyst think of alarm bells and sirens and alerts going off all at once.  She put her hand on Pearl’s arm, and the rhythm slowed down a little.  “Hello? You in there?”

Amethyst’s question didn’t get her very far.  All Pearl did in response was open her eyes a little.  Amethyst leaned forward a little, “Hey.”  She leaned forward a little and looked up into Pearl’s hooded eyes.  They seemed disconnected, but there was something sharp about them around the edges that made Amethyst think that whatever was going on in her head was scary.  “Pearl?” she found her voice at a whisper, “Can you hear me?”

The fog that had seeped into Pearl’s eyes began to clear, and the rhythm slowed again.  Amethyst gripped her arm a little tighter and rubbed her thumb against it, matching the rhythm Pearl had going with her bracelet.  Pearl blinked slowly and let her shoulders fall.  

“There, see?  You’re okay.”  Amethyst gradually slowed her rhythm to half time, then slower.  Pearl copied her.  She let go of her mouth and sighed, blinking slowly again.  

“Pearl?”

She looked up sluggishly and put the hand she had been stimming with onto Amethyst’s outstretched arm.  “Hn?”

“Are you okay now?  What just happened?”

“Ah-uh…” she rubbed the outside edge of her thumb against Amethyst’s arm.

“D’you uh, need somethin’ or…”

“No’m fine… Just… Thank-oo.”

“No problem,” Amethyst understood that she was okay, but she still felt like she needed to do something.

“D’you want me to call your friend?”

“Uhng?”

“Rose, your friend Rose.”

Pearl smiled and closed her eyes, her head tilted so that she was looking at the ceiling, “Roosee… yeh…”

Her voice sounded lighter, still foggy, but not unhappy.

Amethyst gingerly let go of Pearl and put the hand that massaged her arm back onto the bracelet.  The fog around Pearl’s head seemed to clear a tiny bit more, and she seemed calmed by even the mention of Rose’s name.  Amethyst found Rose’s number on the little cheat sheet Pearl had on the fridge and dialed it, glancing at Pearl over her shoulder when she started to hum.  She listened to the melody that rose and fell from the back of Pearl’s throat more closely than the phone ringing, until it stopped and she heard someone pause before, “Hello?”

“Uhh, hi, is Rose there?”

“She’s resting, who is this?”

“I’m… at Pearl’s house and she just had a… thing.”

“She panicked?  Is he doing alright?”

“Y-yeah, she’s just… humming.”

“Hmm.”

“I just thought - that I should tell someone?  I mean, does she need to go to the hospital?”

There was a pause, and Amethyst heard people talking faintly from the other end of the line.  Amethyst bit her lip and glanced up at Pearl, who was now stacking pizza boxes and cups in a tower on the counter.  Amethyst watched her carefully balance a mug on top of a tea cup with the concentration of a chess master weighing down her brow before she heard a clear voice in her ear.  “Hello?  Amethyst?”

She jumped, “Uhh, yeah?”

“Is Pearl hurt?  Can she speak yet?”

“Amethyst held the phone to her chest, “Hey, Pearl, can you talk right now?”

Pearl stared at the cup at the top for a moment, twisted it counter clockwise, “What?”

Her voice was clear; it sounded almost like it had when she had first spoken to Amethyst, except… detached somehow.  Amethyst figured that would be difficult to explain over the phone.  “I’m gonna say yeah.”

“Okay, have fun.”

Amethyst squinted at her and watched her get soaked up into her tower again, making little tweaks here and there.  Amethyst realized she’d been staring too long when she heard a worried “Hello?” come from the phone still pressed to her chest.  She pressed her ear to the receiver quickly, “She’s talking, but I don’t get where her head is right now.  Does she usually build stuff?”

“Oh, good!  Just let her be, she’s happy.”

“Uuhhookay, so if I leave her alone, she’ll be fine?”

“I think she’d prefer that, actually.  Just leave her to herself for a while until I get there - check up on her every few minutes for me, alright?”

“Oh-!  Okay.”  Amethyst shuffled her feet and looked worriedly at Pearl, “Anything else I should know?”

“Make sure she keeps herself busy,” as she spoke, Pearl began to hum again, “She’s got to keep moving around or she’ll panic again.”

“Uh, mind if I ask why?”

“Pearl’s autistic,” the answer came quickly, and the next sentence seemed more to herself than Amethyst, “She always pushes herself too hard… she usually does well on her own, but maybe moving out was too big of a change for her to handle all at once…”  there was a pause, then, “I’ll be over soon!”  Amethyst heard the line cut abruptly and stood there for a moment, staring at her socks.  

Autistic?  Amethyst felt a little guilty when she realized that she didn’t know what that was.  She thought she might have at one point, but either couldn’t remember or hadn’t cared to pay attention to a lesson about it in high school.  She shook herself and put the phone back into its mount on the wall before turning to Pearl again.  She was still humming.  Amethyst listened for a moment before she recognized the song Pearl was now swaying to as she hummed.  Amethyst took out her phone and pulled up her music.  There! She knew she’d heard it somewhere before.  She hopped up onto a stool and put her phone on the counter, now playing the happy song Pearl seemed to take comfort in.  Pearl stopped adjusting her mug tower and smiled for a moment before singing along.  Amethyst thought she had a pretty singing voice.

“Oh, right,” Amethyst jumped off the stool after listening to her sing a few verses and backed into the hallway, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  She was halfway down the hall before she remembered something and ran back to put the song on repeat.  She gave the distracted pizza-architect an awkward thumbs-up that went unnoticed before hurrying to the back yard.  

“She returns!”

“How’d it go?”

“Uhh…” Amethyst hadn’t thought of what to say to Jenny and Sour Cream yet.  “She’s okay, she just had like, a panic attack.  No biggie.  Oh, and her friend’s coming over to check on her.”

Jenny left her place next to Lion and went over to Amethyst, “What? You sure she’s okay?”  

Amethyst felt a little calmed by her friend’s concern: she’d helped Amethyst through plenty of anxiety attacks before.  She was glad she hadn’t had one in a while.  “Yeah, she’s just gotta keep herself busy, according to her friend.”

Sour Cream joined them with Lion trailing behind.  “If she’s okay, then why’s her friend coming over?  Does she need meds or somethin’?”

Amethyst chewed on her bottom lip, “She didn’t mention it over the phone… do you need to take stuff for autism?”

Jenny and Sour Cream looked at each other inquisitively and shrugged in unison.  Jenny crossed her arms, “Isn’t autism like a nervous system thing?  Like, with your brain?”

It was Amethyst’s turn to shrug, “Dunno.”

Sour Cream scratched his jaw, “Is she okay by herself?”

“Her friend said that she’d want to be alone.”

Jenny bent down to pet Lion, “What’s she doin’ in there, anyway?”

“Building a pizza box tower.”

“Cool.”

The sound of tires screeching at the front of the house turned all three of them towards it.  “Is that her friend?”

“Probably.”

They all went quickly through the back door, down the hall, and into the kitchen where Pearl was still singing softly to herself.  She’d rebuilt her tower to make it look different, and it seemed surprisingly stable.  Amethyst held an index finger up to her lips before her friends could say anything and motioned to the living room.  They both nodded and went quietly to the front of the house behind Amethyst.  When they were in front of the couch, there was a soft knock on the front door.  Pearl kept singing and tinkering, as if she hadn’t heard.  Amethyst answered as a second, more frantic rapping echoed through the room to combat the previous one.  

The door swung in to reveal the most beautiful woman Amethyst had ever seen.  She was a strong six feet tall, maybe taller, and filled the door frame with a baby bump and a lot of curly hair.  She seemed slightly out of breath, “Where is Pearl?”

Amethyst just stepped aside and watched her pass through the living room and stride into the kitchen.  Amethyst realized that her mouth was open and closed it quickly when her friends looked at her with what she assumed was the same expression that she wore.  Another very tall woman entered the house behind the first, but she was slightly shorter.  Well, she seemed shorter; she didn’t have to duck to enter like the other woman had.  She greeted Amethyst with a nod and took off her shoes.  Amethyst noted the fact that she didn’t take off her reflective shades, even after the door closed.  She tilted her head back to look up at her and waved, “Hi.”

“Hello,” she replied pensively, “Amethyst?”

Amethyst nodded, “Yup.”

The taller held out a hand, “Garnet.  Thank you for calling.”

“No problem.”

With that, Garnet followed who Amethyst assumed was Rose into the kitchen.  Pearl had stopped singing by now, but the music from Amethyst’s phone still drifted in through the entryway.  Jenny was the first to speak after some silence, “Wow.”

**  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/116091575530/taken-for-your-word


	4. Chapter 4

Pearl heard running water somewhere and opened her eyes. She was in her bed, sitting in the pools of light that seeped through the open window. She sat up slowly and tried to remember when she’d fallen asleep. Her mind was foggy for a moment before she remembered that Rose had been here. She leapt out of bed and burst through the door, into the hallway, and stopped in the kitchen’s entryway. Amethyst turned from the sink and a strainer full of noodles and smiled a little. “Geez, finally. You sleep like a rock.”

Pearl just blinked and squinted for a moment. “Y- wasn’t Rose here? Where did she go?” she stammered.  
Amethyst sifted the water from the strainer and poured the noodles back into the pot, “That was yesterday. They went home.”

Oh. Right.

Pearl shook her head, trying to clear the mist that still lingered from sleep. She massaged her forehead and sat down at the table. Pearl watched Amethyst’s back as she cooked and tried to sort out the memories that were recollecting in the front of her mind.

She remembered coming home, meeting Amethyst’s friends, and then… everything was jumbled and blurry for a while. Mixed into the soupy mess that was her memory during that time was Amethyst’s hand on her arm, and her voice in her ears like an anchor. She remembered being pulled out of a haze by that voice. It had been so easy to hold on to. After a while, though, her voice faded and was lost to the music that she wanted to hear, and eventually, it was there. Not just inside, but outside, too, singing with her. She smiled at the memory of seeing Amethyst when the music started. Had that been her, too? Pearl was still looking at her back, or rather the curtain of bleached hair that fell behind it. “Amethyst?”

She turned from the stove, “Hmm?”

“Thank you.”

Amethyst flushed a bit, “No problem.”

Pearl thought for a moment as Amethyst turned away again. “Can you fill me in on what happened with Rose?”

Amethyst hopped up onto the counter with a “hup!” and reached up for some bowls. “What d’you remember?”

Pearl paused, “Seeing her, and then feeling tired.”

“Wow, okay,” Amethyst grabbed a noodle ladle after searching through some drawers and dipped it into the pot. “I’ll start when she walked in, then.”

Pearl took the bowl of spaghetti that was handed to her and waited for Amethyst to sit up on the counter opposite her, next to the stove. She shovelled some food into her mouth and spoke around it, “Sho, Rohsh and dish oder girl-,” she swallowed, “Garnet, I think, came after I called the number on the fridge, and they went into the kitchen where you were and got you to go to bed. I dunno what they said, exactly, ‘cause we were in the living room, and they were really quiet when they talked to you.” Amethyst had been twirling her fork, and pretty much gulped a mouthful when she paused. Pearl doubted she chewed at all. “Anyway, I asked Jenny and Sour cream to go- it seemed kinda rude for them to stay at that point, y’know? And after they left, Rose and Garnet told me about how you moved out and stuff, and that they were pretty worried about you being by yourself.” She paused to eat again, and Pearl spoke before she could continue, “Wait, what did they say about that? About me being by myself?”

“Ahm getn to dat,” she said around more spaghetti. She gulped audibly and put her bowl aside, “They’re worried about you being by yourself, but you were pretty much fine here until…” Amethyst looked down and away from Pearl with an odd look on her face. “Well, until yesterday.” She paused again, but for longer this time. Pearl worried about what she’d say next. Did she have to go back home because of this?

“I didn’t know-,” Amethyst said suddenly, “that other people, like me and Sour Cream and Jenny would make you…” Amethyst gesticulated without speaking for a moment before letting her hands fall into her lap. She finally looked back at Pearl from under her bangs. “Sorry.”

It took Pearl a moment to realize what she meant. “Oh! N-no! That was anything but your fault! I’m the one who should be sorry, I probably scared you.”

“Having an anxiety attack was not your fault.”

“It wasn’t yours, either.” Pearl crossed her arms, declaring that part of the conversation settled. She rested her elbows on the table and decided to add, “And I remember you helping me get through that. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been because you were there.”

Amethyst bit her lip, “Yeah, i guess.”

Pearl frowned at Amethyst’s still crestfallen face. She was trying to think of something to convince Amethyst to stop feeling so guilty when something else occurred to her. “Wait, why are you here?”

Amethyst looked like a deer in headlights for a moment. “Huh?”

“I mean, did you sleep here? What did Rose say about you staying here?”

Amethyst seemed considerably calmer after hearing Pearl rephrase. “Oh, right. So y’know how she said she was worried about you being here by yourself?”

Pearl nodded quickly.

“Well, she says that maybe I could stay here so you’re not alone. Y’know, cause you already offered, and stuff. She told me that you have the final say on whether that’s okay, though, cause this is your house.”

Pearl puffed out her chest as Amethyst spoke. Somehow, she’d earned Rose’s full trust with this. She felt independent for the first time since she’d moved out. “Yeah, that’s a great idea!”

Amethyst brightened, “Okay, sweet.” She picked her bowl up again and dumped more noodles into it. “What do you usually eat around here, anyway?”

Pearl realized she hadn’t started to eat yet and hastily took a bite of spaghetti. That delayed her answer for a second, and she was blushing nervously by the time the mouthful was gone. “Uhh,” she coughed, “This and some other stuff,” she twirled her fork and felt her blush spread to her ears, “As long as it’s easy to cook, I guess.”

Amethyst nodded, “Good policy.” She hopped off the counter and circled the table to sit next to Pearl. “Got any preferences?”

Pearl felt her face cool down a little, “Not particularly.”

Amethyst chortled, “C’mon, you gotta like somethin’.” She nudged Pearl’s leg with her foot, probably trying to get her to loosen up a little. Pearl just shrugged and smiled almost apologetically, “I like pie, but that’s not-”

She was interrupted by Amethyst’s fork sticking into the air between them. “Pie it is.” Amethyst stabbed her noodles and nodded to herself, “Gotta go to the store, though, your fridge is barren.”

Pearl just blinked at her for a second, “What? You- where did you learn how to bake a pie?”

“I used to cook for-,” Amethyst swirled her food around, “y’know, the other kids. It was one of the only things I could do there besides go to school and the gym.”

It was Pearl’s turn to nudge, but she did it with her shoulder, “That’s really great, Amethyst.”

Amethyst just shrugged and hid under her bangs.

“I’m sure they’d appreciate this, I mean, I usually cook the noodles wrong.”

Pearl caught a smile forming under Amethyst’s hair, “What? How?”

Her shoulders came up around her ears in a big shrug. “I just do it wrong.”

Amethyst turned towards Pearl and flicked her head to move her hair. She was smiling again. “Wait, wait, but how though? Like do you burn them?”

Pearl laughed and started to bounce her leg up and down. “No, I’m not that bad, they just come out funny. They don’t feel like these,” she held up a fork full of spaghetti, “They’re all squishy.”

“Ohhh okay.”

Pearl nodded into her food and continued to bounce her leg to a beat that Amethyst couldn’t hear.

“Are you up to going to the store with me?” Amethyst asked after some silence.

Pearl’s leg kept pace as she thought about it: so soon after an attack? Even a small one? She supposed she felt fine, just kind of tired. Pearl bobbed her head up and down, “As long as you stay close to me.” She was a little worried about it being crowded, but but if she had a buddy, she’d be okay.

Amethyst coughed and colored a little. Pearl almost didn’t notice it, but it was there. “Sounds good,” she said, and got up to put her bowl in the sink. Pearl caught herself staring at Amethyst’s back again and looked back down at her food before she turned around.

“Where’s your containers ‘n’ things?” she asked, her hands on her hips. Pearl was still worried she’d been caught staring and avoided looking up when she pointed at the cabinets with her fork. She risked a glance and saw Amethyst up on the counter again, looking for… what’d she say, containers? Pearl realized she’d pointed in the wrong direction and got up to stand behind Amethyst. “Sorry, not there,” she reached past Amethyst and opened the cupboard where she kept the tupperware.

“Uh, thanks,” Amethyst mumbled, and Pearl realized she was probably popping some kind of personal bubble. She stepped away and tried to smile apologetically, even though she probably just looked nervous.

“I like your PJ’s,” Amethyst sat on the counter and pointed at Pearl’s shirt. It was too big for her; it could pass for a dress if not for the big sleeves that came down to her elbows and the Rob Zombie logo on the front. Pearl looked down past her shirt and at her socks, noticing for the first time since she’d woken up that she wasn’t wearing pants. Crud.

“Are you a fan?”

Pearl looked back up at Amethyst and raised her eyebrows, “Hm?”

“Of Rob Zombie,” Amethyst pointed to the stylized rat looking out from Pearl’s shirt. Pearl hugged herself and laughed nervously, “Oh! No, this is Rose’s. She got it at a concert.”

Amethyst smiled so that her eyes crinkled, and her nose sort of scrunched up a little. “Aw, cool.”

Pearl resisted the temptation to flap her hands and wrung her bare wrist in stead. She really needed to stop doing that. She felt a nervous laugh bubble up from her diaphragm and hunched her shoulders when it left. Amethyst laughed, too, and Pearl felt it in her ribs. She couldn’t stop smiling.

\---

Amethyst was a little worried about Pearl. And really only a little. After the pyjama thing in the kitchen, she had stuttered something about teeth and rushed out, tripping on the frame of the entryway as she went. Amethyst tried really hard not to laugh when she went from the right side of the doorway to the left, muttering, “‘S this way,” and trying to cover the blush on her face. Yup. Cutest dork ever. She punctuated that thought with a nod and leapt to the floor. She spent the next few minutes of washing up thinking about what kind of acrobatics you had to do in your sleep to achieve that kind of bedhead.

“Is something funny?”

Amethyst nearly jumped out of her skin and whipped around to see Pearl looking down at her. “Geez! Are you a ninja, too?!”

Pearl just tilted her head like a confused puppy, “What?”

“Y’know, ‘cause ninjas ‘re- never mind. Ready to go?”

Pearl ran her fingers through her now neatly combed hair and nodded. Amethyst noticed that she’d put her bracelet back where it belonged. She seemed more at ease than earlier, too.

Amethyst hopped on one foot over the landing a minute later, trying to wedge her foot into her shoe. She heard Pearl test the locked door a few times before she turned to follow Amethyst out to the sidewalk. They walked towards the store, and Amethyst questioned Pearl about things like whether or not she could drive, and if she’s ever had a job that wasn’t at a chain restaurant. She rephrased the question when Pearl asked why she wanted to know about chain restaurants in particular. The journey stopped momentarily when Pearl admitted that her first job was at a burlesque club.

“What?! Really?”

“Yes.”

Amethyst sort of just stared for a second before, _“Really?”_

Pearl just nodded and kept walking, “Well, I only needed the job to help Rose out with some financial problems. I didn’t really have it for that long.”

“So… what’d you do there?” Amethyst was pretty curious: she’d never been to a club like that, even though legally, she could if she wanted.

“Played the violin.”

Oh.

It took so much effort not to laugh at the serious and obviously one-sided misunderstanding that had just occurred that her lungs hurt from holding it in. It was one of those situations where you’re really not supposed to laugh, but everything is hilarious.

Amethyst’s muffled laughter made Pearl look over, and she had to cough to hide it, “C-cool.”

“What about you?” Pearl tucked her hands into the pockets of her shorts - she could only fit her fingers up to her knuckles, but she tried, anyway.

“Eh,” Amethyst waved her hand as they walked into the store, “If I’ve ever had a job, it was an odd one. I’ve just done stuff for people who give me money to do it, that’s about it.”

Pearl nodded, “Garnet used to do that.”

“You make it sound like a bad thing,” Amethyst got a basket, “I mean, ‘s not like she was a hit man- woman. Person.”

The look on Pearl’s face made Amethyst reconsider that statement, “No _way._ ”

Pearl suddenly seemed panicked, “N-no, no! She wasn’t-!” Pearl pushed Amethyst into a nearby aisle and grabbed a fistfll of her hoodie, “I-It’s just, well I don’t know if she was or not. She doesn’t talk about what she did before Rose very often, so remember: don’t ask. Seriously, it’s not a good idea.”

Amethyst was a bit taken aback by the sudden manhandling, but it didn’t bother her as much as Pearl’s apparent fear of Garnet’s backstory.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were scared of ‘er.”

Pearl made a face, “What, why?”

Amethyst motioned to Pearl’s death grip on her jacket and she let go. “Sorry,” Pearl smoothed out the wrinkles she’d made and crossed her arms, “I’m not scared of her.”

“You sound scared of her.”

Pearl scowled, “Well, I’m not. She just has a hard enough time without people bothering her about things she doesn’t want to talk about.”

Amethyst was quiet for a moment. “Oh. Sorry.”

Pearl just shrugged and kept her arms crossed. Amethyst tugged on her shirt to get her attention, “Hey, I promise I won’t ask her, okay? I got stuff I don’t like to think about, too.” She smiled when Pearl looked at her, “Promise.”

Pearl seemed reluctant, but gave after a second and uncrossed her arms to put them behind her back. She seemed to be suppressing a smile, “Okay.”

Taking that as a sign of forgiveness, Amethyst led the way around the store, looking for ingredients and things. Pearl stayed close to Amethyst and shied away from people when they passed. Amethyst noticed that she was squinting, with her brow creased like she was in pain.

“You want some water?”

“What? Why?”

“You look like your head hurts.”

Pearl fiddled with her bracelet, “Oh, no, it’s the lights,” she pointed at the ceiling and the fluorescents that glared down at them, some of them flickering and buzzing obnoxiously. Pearl rubbed an eye and shrugged, “I’ll be alright, it’s not that bad.”

She kept messing with her bracelet and sometimes she’d spin in place once or twice, like she was trying to make herself dizzy. Amethyst didn’t want to ask about the twirling after the previous conversation; she was probably on thin ice, despite the apology.

“So… what kinda pie d’you want?”

Pearl rubbed her cheek, “Um, apple. It’s one of the only ones I like.”

Amethyst grinned, “Really? Why apple?”

Pearl shrugged again, “I don’t know, it’s not…,” she suddenly looked queasy and flicked her wrists a few times, “squishy. You know how pumpkin pie is basically just mush in a pie tin? It feels disgusting.”

Amethyst cackled and neglected to do it into her arm or her hand. She just forgot. “Well, I dunno about mush, but,” she picked up a tin of shortening and inspected the label, “I like apple pie better, too.”

She didn’t hear an answer from Pearl right away, so she looked up, and then down, to see her crouching and peeking through the shelf in front of them. Amethyst watched her face go from worried to frazzled in about three seconds. “Hey, what’re you lookin’ at?” She bent down and directed her gaze through an opening in the rows of cans and boxes to see what Pearl was so invested in. “Is that the mayor?”

Pearl jumped as if she’d forgotten that Amethyst was there. “Uhh- guh- I- y-yes. The mayor.”

The sunburned man was looking at apples; picking one up, inspecting it, putting it back down again, and repeating the process. Amethyst smirked, “What’re you watchin’ the mayor for? You got a thing for ‘im?” She nudged Pearl with her elbow and wiggled her eyebrows at her. “You wanna go talk to ‘im?”

Pearl looked at Amethyst with distaste, like she’d just said something abhorrent, “What?”

Amethyst tipped her head towards him, “C’mon, it’s not like he’s busy. The guy’s lookin’ at apples.”

Pearl’s contempt transitioned to confusion, “Am I missing a joke?”

“What? No. Why?”

“Because I don’t have a remote interest in him.”

“You’re the one spying on him from two aisles away.”

“I’m just- Look, he makes me uncomfortable, okay? Whenever he runs into me he acts...off. It’s disorienting.”

“So he has a crush on you?”

Pearl colored and looked indignant, “I- d-” she slumped a puffed out an irritated breath, “I suppose, but I’m not exactly interested in that kind of person.”

“Politicians?”

“No, men.”

Amethyst felt her stomach twist for some reason. Why did that have make her nervous? She mentally kicked herself into gear and looked through the shelf again, “I see how that would make things awkward.”

Pearl just groaned and thunked her head against a box of cake mix. “Why does he have to be there?” She looked at the basket sitting on the ground between them, “All we need is apples, right?”

Amethyst looked down with her and nodded, a little surprised. She didn’t know that Pearl had been paying attention.

“I could go over there by myself, if he irks you that much.”

Pearl seemed to weigh her options for a moment. “Just… okay.”

Amethyst left the basket next to Pearl and walked over to the fruit section, glancing over her shoulder. She could barely see Pearl peeking, but she was there. She chuckled and wiggled her fingers in her direction, prompting Pearl to duck out of sight with a start. Amethyst made it to the apples and back without incident, and Mayor Dewey was still looking at them when she headed back. How long does it take to get apples?

She turned into the aisle to see Pearl still on the floor, but rocking back and forth instead of crouching. She was a bit hunched, reading the label on a bag of brown sugar she’d fished out of the basket. She seemed agitated. It reminded Amethyst of the day before, and how scared Pearl’s eyes had looked. What color were they, again? She suddenly felt like that was very important, what color her eyes were. Amethyst watched her rock for another moment, and decided to get her attention by touching her finger to Pearl’s hand. Pearl jumped, and stopped rocking when she saw who it was.

Blue. They were blue.

“You ok?”

Pearl looked back down quickly and nodded at the brown sugar. Amethyst helped her up and dropped the apples into the basket. “Mission success,” she smiled up at Pearl and went for a high-five. Pearl smiled timidly and reciprocated gently. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/116889030735/taken-for-your-word


	5. Chapter 5

Amethyst was disturbed from her position on the couch when something fwump-ed onto the middle of the three cushions, making her move her feet. She smiled wider than she probably should have when she saw that it was Pearl. "What are you doing?"

Pearl had fallen over the back of the couch and was now sitting upside down, so that her head hung over the side. "It feels good to be the wrong side up sometimes," she sighed.

"Cool." Amethyst let her chin sit in her palm and watched Pearl's eyelids move like she was asleep and dreaming. She was used to Pearl doing stuff like this. She said it felt nice to move in certain ways, and sometimes it helped her think. Amethyst had started to associate different movements with what mood Pearl was in. She was starting to get to know Pearl's sort-of-family, too. Rose seemed to be a maternal figure for Pearl, and maybe something else? It was easy to tell by the way Pearl looked at her that she loved her a lot, and Rose did, too, just in a different way. Amethyst thought it was pretty cool that they had a pretty strong relationship without that getting in the way of things, especially with Greg around. He seemed to be okay with it, and Amethyst liked him for that. He was accepting. Garnet was harder to pin down, mostly because she didn't say much. Pearl seemed pretty comfortable with her, though: she'd never seen anyone anchor themselves to another person's arm so much before. It made Garnet seem like the kind of person who'd let kids ride on her shoulders.

Amethyst was pulled out of her thoughts when Pearl opened her eyes. She jumped and dropped her gaze back down to her lap and the book that she'd forgotten was there when Pearl showed up. She hoped Pearl had missed the dumb smile she'd had on and that she was even looking- she wished her stupid face would stop burning red whenever Pearl was being cute or beautiful or whatever else, but it didn't help or matter because that was like, all the time and-

"What are you reading?" Amethyst looked up from under her bangs and saw that Pearl was probably oblivious to Amethyst's inner turmoil.

"Graphic novel."

"Is it good?"

Amethyst shrugged. She had pretty much forgotten which one she'd grabbed from the shelf that Pearl had let her use. She'd gotten distracted.

"Pretty," her back straightened when she realized what had just come out of her mouth without her permission, "Good! P-pretty good- book." Amethyst stared at one of the panels on a page that was now too close to her face for her to read. She was probably blushing. Again.

She jumped when she felt Pearl touch her leg. Pearl was getting more comfortable with touching Amethyst, so she would put a hand on her shoulder or something to get her attention instead of using her voice. Amethyst lowered the book a bit and raised her eyebrows questioningly, trying to seem like she wasn't silently flipping out. Pearl held her hand out, and it took a second for Amethyst to understand and give her the book. Amethyst caught herself staring again and slapped a hand over her eyes as Pearl read the back cover. She dropped it when Pearl hummed and handed the book back, "Seems interesting."

"Yeah," Amethyst glanced at the summary and frowned, "This one's pretty sad, though."

"How so?"

Amethyst ran her thumb over the side of the book and made the pages rush from under the pad of her finger to the front cover. "I'd spoil it if I told you."

Pearl huffed a laugh and swung her legs down so she could sit up and cross them, "Fair enough."

Amethyst set the book on the arm of the couch and put her hands in her lap. Pearl didn't normally look like she wanted to say something. She was usually painfully blunt. So why did she look all nervous like that? Amethyst just picked at the holes in her jeans and waited.

"What do you want to do today?" Amethyst knew for sure that wasn't what she was going to ask, but she let it slide. Pearl would ask eventually, if it was important.

"I dunno. You don't have practice?"

"No, no classes today." Pearl had gotten a part in a ballet that was coming up, and it had taken up most of her time. She just had one day a week off, and apparently that was today. That and her fencing made hanging out kind of infrequent.

Amethyst smiled excitedly, "Hey, you wanna go to the arcade? Mr. Smiley found an old Pac Guy console!"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Amethyst jumped off the couch to get her coat from the back of the house, and Pearl yelled after her, "Why do you like that game so much?"

Amethyst turned just when she got to the hall, "Because it's awesome!"

Pearl had her shoes on when Amethyst got back. "Ready?"

Pearl tugged at the cuffs of her sweater, "Yes." Amethyst almost laughed at Pearl's weird need to be formal and grabbed her shoes.

"So why do you like Pac Man so much?"

"Pac Guy."

"Right, yes- Pac Guy."

Amethyst got up from putting on her sneakers and pointed a thumb at her chest, "Cause he's cool- lookin'."

Pearl eyed the circular character on Amethyst's shirt with a slightly furrowed brow, "Is that all?"

"Well, it's fun, too."

"It is?"

"Well, yeah, haven't you-" Amethyst gasped a little over-dramatically, "You haven't played Pac Guy?!"

Now Pearl just looked bewildered and maybe a bit guilty because of Amethyst's reaction, "Ehhhhh..."

Amethyst dropped the fictitious shock for mitigating laughter, "I'm jokin', P," Amethyst hooked a finger into one of the belt loops of Pearl's jeans, "I'll show it to you, it's really fun."

Pearl tugged at her sweater's collar, "Okay." Amethyst pulled her towards the door and couldn't hold down the giggle that broke out of the back of her throat. She liked it when Pearl just went along with stuff: the look on her face made her lightheaded.

Pearl detached Amethyst from her pants and held her hand instead, "Sorry, that was making it hard to walk."

"No prob," Amethyst stayed ahead of Pearl, deciding that leading the way was her excuse for holding Pearl's hand. She felt like a creep for needing an excuse for something Pearl had initiated, probably because she was sure that Pearl was doing it for different, not-crush-related reasons. She shook her uncertainty off and squeezed Pearl's hand when they got to the boardwalk. She had to shove butterflies down when Pearl squeezed back. Do not blush, don't- goddammit. She reluctantly let go when they got to the arcade, her excuse now invalid, and put her hands in her pockets. "D'you see Smiley?"

Pearl looked around at the rows of game consoles pushed up against the walls and each other, "No."

"Maybe he's in the back?" Amethyst went further in, around the column in the center of the store. They found Mr. Smiley with a broom in his hands and earbuds in his ears. Amethyst could hear the music he was listening to from a few feet away, so she just waved to get his attention. Mr. Smiley grinned jovially and pointed to his right, where a Pac Guy console sat in the corner. Amethyst waved excitedly at him as she ran over, "Thanks!" Mr. Smiley waved and winked at her before he continued sweeping and hummed to his music. Pearl followed Amethyst over to the machine and squinted at the screen, "Does everyone know that you like this game?"

"Pretty much," Amethyst stuck some quarters in and took Pearl's hand again, "Here, just control him with this,” she placed Pearl's hand on the joystick. Pearl’s shoulders hitched up to her ears, “Bu- uhh…”

“It’s okay, you’ll get it,” Amethyst waved her hand assuringly and pointed at the screen when the game started. “You gotta collect the dots.”

Pearl did pretty well, and they took turns for a while. Amethyst was trying to make Pearl laugh most of the time, and she felt a little accomplished when she looked up at Pearl smiling at the screen as she played.  They started yelling frantically when they got to the hard levels (it was mostly Pearl yelling, Amethyst was just cackling and failing to give her proper directions), and they both made Pac Guy’s death more grandiose by shouting, “Noo!” and “Pac Guy, nooo!”

Amethyst couldn’t stop breathless laughter from taking her voice for a minute, “L-” she laughed in between words, “Let’s go again, we almost got the high-score.”

Pearl was smiling really big when she looked up, “Okay, but you go first this ti-”  Pearl’s phone rang, interrupting her.  “Oh! That’s Garnet! Hang on.” She took her phone- this dork still had a flip phone- out of her pocket and answered with a happy, “Hello?” Her smile slowly fell off her face and a panicked expression replaced it.  “Wh- uh- we- arcade!”  She listened for another moment and nodded uselessly, “Uh-huh!”  Amethyst tugged on her sweater and made an expression that she hoped translated to “what the hell’s going on,” and Pearl started flapping her hands agitatedly.  “O-okay,” Pearl snapped the phone shut and tried to repeat whatever she’d heard on the phone, “R-rose, Garnet- baby!”

Amethyst’s stomach dropped into her shoes, “The baby’s coming?!”

Pearl nodded so vigorously that Amethyst feared she would hurt herself.  “Pearl, breathe, with me, come on,” Amethyst made her sit on the floor and started counting, “One, two, three,” she gasped and then blew the breath out, and Pearl did the same. Pearl gasped and spluttered like she was drowning, “G-garnet’s coming- here,” Amethyst made her gasp again and she talked as she let it out, “Hospital!”

“Okay, just breathe,” Amethyst inhaled with Pearl a few more times before Pearl insisted that they wait outside.  Amethyst grabbed her hand while they waited and Pearl bounced on the balls of her feet until Greg’s van screeched around the corner and catapulted towards the arcade.  Pearl’s grip tightened when they looked up and she dragged Amethyst into the back of the van when it stopped.  Amethyst nearly shouted, “Go!” when the door slid closed.  Pearl immediately started questioning Garnet, “Is Rose okay?! When did she- and the hospital- have you heard-?”

“Pearl! She’s going to be fine. The EMT’s will take care of her, and her doctor is a good one. She’s going to be okay.”

“Why did she need EMT’s? Why didn’t you or Greg just drive her?” Amethyst was asking questions now, her hand getting strangled by Pearl’s.

“Greg called them. I think he’s more nervous than Pearl right now.”

Amethyst laughed almost humorlessly, “What about Rose?”

“From what I could tell, she was just excited.  She said she’s “finally going to meet Steven.”

Amethyst looked over at Pearl when she heard a panicky, high-pitched laugh, “She’s wonderful.”

\---

Pearl squeezed Amethyst’s hand for the umpteenth time today.  Well, tonight.  They had been sitting in the waiting room for hours.  Pearl had spent most of that time pacing or fidgeting next to Amethyst, who was now asleep.  Whenever Pearl had squeezed her hand, she’d squeezed right back.  It was comforting, but after a while, Amethyst’s reactions got fainter and more delayed as her expression went from anxious to comatose.  She knew Rose was going to be okay- she hoped, anyway, but having Amethyst there was good.  More than good, really.  She always seemed to know what to do.  Pearl absently rubbed Amethyst’s thumb with hers and thought about earlier, before everything had started spinning.  Thinking about Amethyst being happy made her happy.  Her laugh was nice.  She was nice, just, as a whole.  Pearl tried not to think about Rose and the dangers of childbirth and just focused on Amethyst’s laugh, and how the only books she owned were graphic novels, and how she had a box full of records mixed with all of her socks and no record player.  She was smiling into Amethyst’s hair- Amethyst was leaning on her shoulder, so she leaned back- when Greg pushed through the door across the room with a bundle in his arms.  

Garnet jumped up with Pearl and Amethyst nearly fell out of her chair.  Pearl pulled her up by her hand, “Oh! Sorry!” her voice went from relatively loud to an excited whisper, “Look!”

Amethyst rubbed her eye crankily, “Whuh?”

Pearl just tugged her towards Greg and Garnet, “Come on!”  Garnet had a rare grin on and Greg looked tired but incredibly happy looking at his son.  Amethyst walked in stride with Pearl when she saw Greg and most of her lethargy was gone by the time she got a good look at Steven.  There were little black curls sticking out of the bundle above the baby’s face, which was pink and tiny and chubby and suddenly Pearl was crying.  Amethyst squeezed her hand when a sob welled up and came out as a relieved laugh.  She squeezed back and laced their fingers together, “Is Rose okay?”

Greg poked Steven’s nose- he had Greg’s nose, “Yeah, she’s sleeping.  She had a whole conversation with him before she dozed off, though.”

Garnet hummed, and Pearl thought she was going to laugh, “That’s good, she needs her rest.”  

Greg nodded in agreement and walked past them to sit on the floor further into the room. “Come on, little buddy, you gotta meet your friends.”  He handed Steven to Garnet and leaned against a chair with his eyes half closed.  Garnet held him carefully and murmured, “Hello, little one.”

Amethyst tugged on Pearl’s sweater and waggled a thumbs-up back and forth, “You okay?”

Pearl scrubbed her soggy face with her sleeve, “Yeah.”

Garnet held the baby for a minute, then handed him to Pearl.  Amethyst sat closer to her and grinned at Steven while Garnet said something to Greg.  Pearl wasn’t really paying attention to that, though, because Steven opened his eyes, blinked lazily up at her, and smiled.  She heard somebody say, “He has Rose’s eyes,” and almost agreed before she realized she was the one who’d said it.  Amethyst poked his nose and giggled when he blinked again.  Pearl leaned forward and held Steven out just a little, she didn’t want to drop a newborn after all, but Amethyst hadn’t held him yet.  

Amethyst suddenly looked a bit panicked, “Oh no- no way, I can’t-”

“Just say hi.”

Amethyst hesitated for another moment before she took him and kind of just sat there staring at him while Pearl was staring at Amethyst.  There was a little twinge in her chest that didn’t really go away; it dulled after a while, but it got bright and nearly painful again when Amethyst smiled, or laughed, or did something simple that seemed amazing when she did it, like holding a small child as if it was the most daunting thing she’d ever done.

Pearl rubbed her chest and cleared her throat.  It was getting hard to breathe.  Amethyst looked up from Steven and held him a little closer to her chest, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Pearl just nodded and lied, “Heartburn.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/117505574565/taken-for-your-word


	6. Chapter 6

Amethyst groaned.  It was too bright. She rolled over and yelped because she was falling, and a second later she was laying face-down on the floor next to the couch.  She really needed to get Pearl to buy a futon.  Or like, a pull-out couch. She lifted her head and tugged her hair away from her face with both hands.  It must be the afternoon by now because it was really bright in here, geez.  Amethyst got up to close the blinds and went to the kitchen to find Pearl on the phone.

“How’s Steven doing?”  It had been three days since Rose had come home from the hospital, and Pearl had either called, visited, or both daily since then.  “That’s good,” Pearl smiled at Amethyst when she came in and pointed excitedly at the phone.  Amethyst nodded and went over to the fridge.  She only half-listened to Pearl’s side of the conversation.  Food first, endearingly excited roommate later.  She had a bowl of cereal in front of her when Pearl hung up the phone.

“Rose says Steven is alright.  He’s eating and sleeping and all that.”  

Amethyst gave her a thumbs- up and mumbled something incoherent past a spoonful of corn flakes.  Pearl gave her a fake serious look, “Chew your food, Amethyst.”

“I hoo my hood!”

Pearl’s smirked, “You’re insufferable.”

Amethyst gulped as Pearl got up to put the phone away, “You’re the one letting me sleep on your couch.”

Pearl crossed her forearms over the table from the opposite side, “Lucky you.”

They both held back grins and watched each other to see who would laugh first.  Amethyst always lost.  

“Dammit!”

Pearl grinned victoriously, “Yes! I got you!”

Amethyst’s snarky reply  was interrupted by her phone ringing.  

“Who is that?”

“I dunno,” Amethyst fished her phone out of her pocket.

“Don’t you have ringtones for all of your contacts?”

“You’re just a nerd.”

“Hey! It’s useful!”

Amethyst rolled her eyes and held back the desire to tell Pearl she was cute.  “Hello?”

“Amethyst!  Marty’s looking for you!” Jenny’s panicked voice made Amethyst jump, and the words made her drop her spoon into her cereal.

“You’d better be joking.”

“Why would I joke about Marty?”

“Did he come to the pizza place?”

“Yeah, he thought I might know where you are, but I didn’t tell him jack! That guy’s bad news.”

“Did he say why he’s looking for me?”  Amethyst glanced up when Pearl put her hand on her arm.  She looked really worried. Amethyst just bit her lip and looked at the tabletop.

“No, whatever it is, it’s about his job.  He’s a foster guy, right?”

“Yeah, he was in charge of checking on us at the last home I was in before I turned eighteen.”

“Whatever he’s up to, It can’t be good.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I gotta go, my dad’s gonna chew me out if I don’t get this delivery done.”

“Okay. Talk to you later.”

“You better.”

“Bye, Jenny.”

“Bye.”

Amethyst hung up and stared at her phone for a moment.  Crap.

“Who is looking for you? What’s going on?” Pearl shook Amethyst out of her doomed stare with panic on her face.

“I’m gonna be okay, it’s this sleazeball that I thought I’d seen the last of.  No biggie.”

“Are you kidding? What if this guy is looking to hurt you? You don’t know-”

“No, I don’t!” Amethyst snapped. Pearl got quiet.  “Sorry, I-,” Amethyst rubbed her eyes, “I don’t want to talk about it.  I got this, okay? Don’t worry about me getting hurt.  He’s not that kind of sleazeball.”

Pearl worried her bracelet, “There are different kinds?”

“Yeah, the kind you’re thinking of is the physical kind, this guy’s just a misogynistic douche.”

Pearl leaned on the table, her posture tense, “Oh.”

“Yup.”

“So… you’re not in any danger?”

“If by “danger” you mean getting hit, then no.”

Pearl was silent for a bit, and Amethyst munched on her cereal with a solemn look on her face.

“Why are you worried about him...showing up if...not...that?”

Amethyst stirred her milk and sighed, “He gives me bad anxiety.  And he knows it.”

Pearl’s face hardened.  She didn’t say anything.

“Do you know why I used to live with Rose and not with my parents?”

The question surprised Amethyst into looking up and the expression on Pearl’s face delayed her answer.  “No.”

“They were abusive.  Not at first, I mean, my dad was the one who got me into ballet, and the violin, and piano, but later on, he just… shut down.  Like I didn’t matter to him anymore.  And my mother was just an alcoholic. She wasn’t civil unless she was very, very drunk.  And if she wasn’t drunk, she was either getting drunk or asleep.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with her that wasn’t two seconds long and derogatory.”  Pearl paused and took a shaky breath, “When I met Rose, everything got… better.  I wasn’t different with her, I was just me, and she taught me how to be me all the time.  I didn’t have to hold it in around her.  I almost never have to act neurotypical now, except for work, but it’s better than living with that for years.”

Pearl paused long enough for Amethyst to grab her hand. She found a few days ago that it comforted Pearl when she was nervous, and Amethyst was sure as hell that she needed it. Pearl gripped her offering and addressed it like she was looking Amethyst in the eye (eye contact made her uncomfortable, so this was a good substitute), “Rose- we- I mean… if you’re… I can help.”  Pearl put her other hand on top of Amethyst’s so that she was holding it with both, “If you want.  Need it.  Because-”

“Yeah,” Amethyst interrupted her before she could rant, and was surprised to hear her voice crack, “Thanks, Pearl.”

Amethyst didn’t miss the wobbly smile that Pearl rubbed away, “Welcome.”

Amethyst took in a big breath through her nose, “Hey!”

Pearl looked up, rubbing her eye, “Huh?”

“Let’s go do something. I haven’t hung out with Jenny in forever, and you’re not busy, right?”

Pearl shook her head, “No, I’m not busy.”

\---

Pearl thudded her fingers against her thigh.  She felt a bit odd not being next to Amethyst.  She supposed getting “the honor of shotgun,” as Buck had put it, was a step in the right direction, these being Amethyst’s friends and all, but she still felt left out.  She didn’t know what else to say to Jenny, if she needed to say anything.  They had already had a short conversation about driving stick shift, and now they were both listening to the music, along with the other three roughhousing in the back.  

“Hey, Pearl, are you okay?” Pearl jumped when Jenny addressed her over the music. “The last time I saw you, you had a panic attack.  Sorry about that.  Have you been doing better?”

Pearl blinked quickly, taken aback, “I- uh, yes.  I’ve been alright.  You don’t have to apologize, it was hardly your fault- well a little, but- sorry, that came out wrong-”

Jenny laughed, “Hey, I get it, you’ve got your stuff, everybody does.  I’m just glad you’re doin’ better.  Amethyst is, too.”

Pearl pursed her lips to suppress a smile and looked at Amethyst through the rearview mirror, “She is?”

“Yeah! You’re a good influence.”

Pearl smiled nervously, “Uh, thank you.”

Pearl thought Jenny was finished, but she continued after a second, “She used to get drunk all the time before she started living with you,” she said it quietly, even though Pearl was sure Amethyst wouldn’t hear over the radio and the lighthearted argument she was having with Sour Cream and Buck in the back seat.  “I told her it was dumb, and we fought about it, but I’m always gonna be there for her. We’re friends, that’s what we do,” Jenny nudged Pearl with the back of her hand and continued, “I think she was trying to forget stuff.  Pretend she wasn’t her, y’know?” Pearl nodded when she glanced over, “But I think you help her with that.  Not forgetting, but making it seem okay. She’s got to accept it to move away from it.”

Pearl didn’t reply for a minute.  She just looked at her hands and wondered why in the world Amethyst wouldn’t want to be herself.  She was great.  “Thank you for telling me that.”

“Telling you what?”  Amethyst was leaning on the armrest between the front seats.

“Ehhh…”

“Nothing at all. Get your seatbelt on!” Jenny chastised her vehemently, and Amethyst grumbled as she did what she was told.  Pearl smiled at Amethyst apologetically and Amethyst stuck her tongue out at her.  She didn’t get a chance to retort because Amethyst’s face disappeared underneath Buck’s jacket when he leaned over her. She was sitting in the middle, and Buck and Sour Cream were playing a strangely intense game of rock-paper-scissors.

“Hey! I’m sittin’ here, can’t you keep your hands off each other for two seconds?”

Buck sat back down, “He’s totally cheating.”  Sour Cream reached over Amethyst and tried to mess up Buck’s hair, “Am not!”

“How are you supposed to cheat at rock-paper-scissors?” Jenny joined the conversation.

“He’s waiting to throw after I do!  That’s totally cheating!” Buck retaliated and squished Amethyst into Sour Cream’s side trying to get at his hair, and Amethyst made an agitated noise that was either a scream or a growl, “Alright! Just settle it when I’m not in the middle!”

They leaned away from Amethyst, shared a mischievous look, and hugged her in unison.

“Ahhh! This is worse! Jenny, do something!”  Buck had his arms around her middle, and Sour Cream had his around her shoulders. “You can’t fight the love, man!” Sour Cream yelled dramatically at the sky.

“Nah man, nah,” Buck seemed content with basically laying down so he could hug Amethyst properly.  Amethyst made the agitated noise again and just let it happen.

“Having fun?” Pearl laughed when Amethyst scowled at her.  

“We’re here!” Jenny said as the car slowed to a stop in front of an old warehouse that sat wilting behind some of the backstreets closer to Beach City. “There’s no chance that wet sock could have followed us here.”

Pearl felt a chill travel up her spine at the thought of being followed by someone that made Amethyst and her friends feel so unsafe.  They had waited back at Pearl’s house for Jenny to come and pick them up: Jenny was worried that Marty might still be hanging around.  

They all piled out of the car, and Pearl stood looking up at the warehouse, glad she wasn’t alone.  She knew it probably wasn’t dangerous, but that didn’t stop it from being creepy. The building wasn’t just broken, it was… cold. It looked like it was sagging from the weight of being alone for so long.

“Whacha lookin’ at?”  Amethyst had come to stand next to her while the others got stuff from the trunk of Jenny’s car.

“The haunted house,” Pearl nodded towards the warehouse and let her crossed arms swing down to her sides.

Amethyst chortled, “C’mon, it’s not that creepy.”

Pearl’s stomach did a backflip when Amethyst laced their fingers together.  She was usually the one to initiate hand-holding, and she was pretty comfortable with it, but Amethyst didn’t really do it that often.  Did she?  Great, now she couldn’t remember. Wait, did Amethyst just say something? Stop freaking out and listen!

“Yoo-hoo!  Pearl in there somewhere?”

“What? Yes. What?”  Pearl almost flinched when her cheeks got all tingly, like she’d just shoved her head in a bucket of ice water.  The feeling settled down after a moment, and she felt her palms starting to get sweaty when Amethyst tugged her towards the warehouse.

“We’re going inside now, P.”

“Right.”

Amethyst just laughed in the way that made Pearl feel like she was way too close to a radio turned up too loud.

`Pearl bumped into Amethyst when she stopped short, looking up.  “Woah.”

Pearl followed her gaze and let her mouth fall open.  The light streaming in from holes in the the weather-beaten ceiling danced down to the ground and posed among the growth that overtook the edges of the floor.  Small, palm-sized flowers decorated the walls and glistened pink and lavender in the light’s performance.  It looked like magic.

Pearl found herself in the center of the cavernous room, blinking up at bird’s nests and leaves that poked through the beams in the ceiling.  She felt excited laughter bubble up from the back of her throat and spun in a tight circle with her arms against her sides, and then curled them up against her chest, her fists shaking with wonder, “Oh this is so beautiful!  I wonder how long this took to grow?” She strode to the closest wall and tucked her arms behind her back to grin at the flowers that bloomed there.  “What kind are they, do yo-”  Pearl looked over at Amethyst to address her with the question, but something about her face made her forget what she was going to ask.  Amethyst was looking at her...funny.  She didn’t have a better word for it.  Pearl felt a hot blush crawl up her neck and tried to swallow it.  She didn’t know whether to talk or not; she had the feeling she’d be interrupting something if she did.  Amethyst took a breath to say something, but a loud CLANK interrupted her and made both snap their heads around to find the source.  

Buck had dropped the camping lantern they had brought so they could stay late, and Jenny was fixing him with a death stare.  It was threatening, to say the least.  Sour Cream had a slice of pizza halfway to his open mouth, aware of the sudden stillness in the air.  It was heavy for a moment, and nobody moved; even the light seemed to stop twinkling. Until Amethyst started laughing. Everyone turned to see her doubled over, her arms crossed over her stomach.  Then, Pearl was laughing, and so was everybody else.  It was like a big, relieving gust of air that swept through the building and made it light again.  

When they were all settling down, catching their breath, Pearl went over to where Jenny and the others had set up ‘camp’ and dusted off her skirt before sitting on an old piece of metal that someone had covered with a blanket. Amethyst flopped down next to her, “That was weird.”

Pearl nodded in agreement and almost started laughing again.  “Your laugh is nice.”

Wait, what?  Pearl’s back straightened when she caught up with what she’d just said.  She coughed into her fist to hide the blush she knew was probably already clinging to her ears.

“So’s yours.”

Pearl probably stopped breathing, who knows, but that’s what it felt like.  Her chest was almost uncomfortably tight, and she could feel her pulse thumping against her ribs, like her heart was trying to break out of prison.  How did Amethyst do that with her voice? She made even a tiny sentence sound so… She didn’t know! Pearl almost threw her hands up in frustration because she couldn’t explain why Amethyst made her pulse pick up and run, or why her hands got clammy whenever she got really close, or why the way she smelled made her light headed, or how the way Amethyst talked to her sometimes really felt like flir-r-r-r…

Oh.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/118027896470/taken-for-your-word


	7. Chapter 7

“Order for… La-a-a…” the kid at the counter threw, “Ronaldo, I can’t read your handwriting!” over his shoulder and tugged nervously on his collar, eyeing the receipt in his hand.  

“How is that my fault, Peedee?” was shouted back from somewhere behind the order window, and Peedee scowled. “It’s your handwriting!”

“That’s me.”

Peedee blew out a relieved breath and pushed the large order of fries over the counter,  “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright,” the woman dug around in her purse for a moment and produced a few dollars, “Here.”

“Uhh, you already paid,” Peedee said hesitantly.

“It’s a tip.”

Peedee looked at the money like it was going to bite him before he took it.  “Uhh, thanks…” he looked at her expectantly.

“Lapis.”

Peedee waved as she walked away, “Right, thanks, Lapis.”

Amethyst watched all of this happen with slight disinterest as she approached, and sauntered up to the counter when the window opened up.

“Sup, Peedee? Makin’ bills?”

Peedee shoved the dollars into his apron and dusted it off, “Yeah, sure.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes at his tendency to be skittish. “Two orders of fries, pretty please,” she asked sarcastically.  Peedee snorted and hollered some gibberish to the cooks in the back before turning back to Amethyst.

“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in almost a month.”

“Why? You miss me?”

He squinted at her and she chortled, ruffling his dreads.  “Don’t worry, I’ve been around.  Went to the arcade last week.”

He swatted her hand away and smirked, “Yeah yeah, just don’t get in trouble.”

“Promise.”

They fist-bumped, and she paid before waving goodbye with a “Later,” and going over to where Pearl was waiting.  She was bouncing on the balls of her feet with her arms crossed to fight the chill.  Amethyst smirked, “Cold?”

“Only a little.”

“Pfft, yeah right,” Amethyst handed Pearl the food and wiggled out of her jacket. Pearl’s eyebrows shot up when Amethyst held it out to her, “Oh, no, I’ve got a sweater-”

"Too late!" Amethyst got on her toes and threw the jacket over Pearl’s shoulders before taking back one of the paper trays so she could eat her fries.

“Amethyst!”

She flopped down onto the edge of the raised floor that held up most of this part of the town and patted the spot next to her when Pearl didn’t sit down right away. Pearl obliged with a huff and crossed one leg over the other, bouncing it absently. “You’re going to get cold,” she muttered passive-aggressively.

Amethyst made a show of rolling her eyes and moving her head with it, “Ugh, you’re such a wuss.” She puffed a visible cloud of breath and scooted closer to Pearl. Amethyst slid her arm around Pearl’s waist, tucking into the jacket so that they were both underneath it. “Better?”

Pearl colored and nodded, picking at her fries, “Better.” She didn’t seem to mind when Amethyst neglected to move her arm, and Amethyst grinned when Pearl relaxed into her side. That’s when she finally started eating, too; Pearl tended to forget to eat, even if there was food right in front of her. Amethyst had gotten into the habit of reminding her to do stuff, because unless she was invested in something, it didn't hold her attention for very long.

Amethyst set her empty tray down and leaned into Pearl's arm a little more. She tapped a beat on her thigh and watched the tide rise and fall a good distance away. After some silence, sans Amethyst’s pecking, and the ocean, quiet at this distance, Pearl broke it, “Are you sure we can be here?” Her voice was loud and sharp, like she'd been holding her breath. It made Amethyst jump.

Amethyst frowned, glanced over her shoulder, and hugged Pearl closer, “Yeah, we’re fine. He’s probably gone.”

“Probably?”

“Stop worrying, P, we’re okay.”

“I’m not worried about myself,” Pearl frowned at her half-empty tray and started moving her food around again.

Amethyst chewed her lip and leaned her head on Pearl’s shoulder, “Well, cut it out. It’s not that important.”

Pearl stopped playing with her food and turned to look at the top of Amethyst’s head, “How is you feeling safe not important?” Amethyst didn’t look up, but Pearl’s voice sounded angry. She could feel Pearl staring at her, waiting for some explanation as to why Amethyst didn’t seem to think this was a big deal.

Amethyst didn’t know how to put her mistrust and- damn her if she admitted it- fear of…that guy into words. She lacked the ability to tell Pearl, or anyone, that he had never once laid a finger on her, not directly, anyway, but he managed to be more threatening to her than anyone who had. He was manipulative, and he played a different game than other people that she’d dealt with before. It was unsettling, to say the least, and anxiety-inducing at the worst. She usually tacked on fake confidence that she’d be able to keep a panic attack at bay if he ever showed up, but it never worked. Marty meant very bad, days-long anxiety and multiple attacks that don’t stop until he was miles away. She didn’t want Pearl to begin to worry about that, so she locked it down under empty assurances that they’d be okay. Amethyst knew Pearl needed to know about this at some point, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind and decided to deal with it when it came up.

“Because I can handle it,” she lifted Pearl’s arm and wrapped it around her shoulders so she could hide underneath it, “Eat your fries.”

Pearl let out an exasperated sigh and seemed to let it go, at least for now. She pushed her tray into Amethyst’s lap, “I’m not very hungry,” and adjusted the jacket that had started to slide down before leaving her arm where Amethyst had moved it.

Amethyst frowned at the tray in her lap and then peeked up at Pearl from underneath her arm, "Why are you so worried about me?"

Pearl seemed to consider the question and wiped her palm on her jeans, "Because you aren’t," she tightened her arm around Amethyst and hid the lower half of her face in her hair - it was all poofy from the weather. “I don’t understand how you can just not worry. I mean, it seems like something you- or, someone, should be worried about, right?”

Amethyst was quiet for a moment. “It doesn’t have to be you. I mean…” Amethyst loosened Pearl’s arm around her neck and grabbed her hand. “You don’t have to.”

Pearl slid their palms together out of habit, and pushed her fingertips into Amethyst’s wrist. She seemed suddenly agitated, going by the way her back straightened so that her end of the jacket feel off of her shoulder.  “What if I want to?” It was less of a question fuelled by confusion and more an immature challenge. Amethyst was caught between laughing at her tone and turning red from what she’d actually said.  It was weird having someone besides her friends care enough to actually worry about her, especially since she didn’t think she deserved it from this person in particular.

“Hello, you two.”

Pearl yelped, nearly breaking Amethyst’s hand from the truly tenacious grip she only seemed to have when she was freaked out. Amethyst spun around to her left, against Pearl, and looked through her hair to see Garnet standing behind them.  Pearl relaxed when she saw who it was and let go of Amethyst, “Ehh, sorry.”

Amethyst shook her hand out from her wrist, “You’re good.”

Garnet set her hands on her hips, “Cold?”

“Only a little,” Amethyst crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks, eliciting a response from Pearl. “Oh, shut it.” Amethyst cackled as Pearl helped her up, and then stooped to get her jacket so she could flip it over her head.  

Garnet crossed her arms, “What are you doing out here? It’s going to rain.”

Amethyst looked up from pulling her hair out of her coat to barely catch Pearl looking away. “Wh-um… we’ve been cooped up at home for a few days… so we came out.  For fries.” Pearl shrugged off the weak explanation and launched into a question, “How are things at the house?”

Amethyst had a feeling that Garnet had raised an eyebrow at that, even though she couldn’t really see the top half of her face very well.  Why did she wear those all the time? The sun wasn’t even visible through the clouds. Garnet adjusted her glasses. “I noticed,” she seemed to be ignoring Pearl’s question, “Something wrong?”

Pearl looked like she was floundering for something to say to that, so Amethyst jumped in, “Nope.”

Pearl gave her a disgruntled look and took a breath, supposedly to pick the previous argument back up from where they left it, “I-” but something stopped her.  She let the breath out and crossed her arms, “Yeah, fine.”

Garnet looked between them for a moment and moved to a new topic of conversation.  “Rose misses you. We all do. You should come over for dinner,” she looked down at Amethyst, “You, too. Bring your cooking skills.”

Amethyst forced a grin, “Yeah, totally.”

Garnet nodded to her and turned to Pearl, “I have to go, or I’ll be late,” she put a hand on Pearl’s shoulder, “Call when you get home.”

“Okay.” Pearl pulled her sleeves down to cover her hands and picked at them absently, “See you at dinner.”

Garnet waved as she walked away, leaving them alone again. Pearl brushed past Amethyst when Garnet turned a corner, “Come on, let’s go.”  She kept her arms tightly crossed and her shoulders hunched the whole way home.  Neither of them spoke. By the time they got to the front door, Amethyst’s stomach was getting struck by lightning.  She felt like running away.

Pearl pushed the door in and left it open for Amethyst to close. She stopped next to the couch when the door clicked into its frame, her shoulders still next to her ears.  She’d gone from a simmer to a boil since she’d stepped foot on the porch. Pearl uncrossed her arms and flapped her hands around her head, “I don’t-!” she brought her shaking fists up above her head and then down to her sides, “Why can’t I worry about you?” She sounded hurt.  “I don’t understand why you have to do this by yourself,” she mumbled.

Amethyst’s shoulder’s hitched, the last statement kicking her into gear, “I never said that!”

Pearl whirled around, “No, you didn’t, but you’re acting like this isn’t important!”

“Why should I?”

“Because you’re important! You’re so important, and I don’t understand how you can just ask me not to care like-”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Pearl shook her arms frustratedly and scrubbed her face with her hands.  She mumbled into her palms, “What did you mean, then?”

Amethyst chewed her lip and glanced at the floor before she answered. “Nobody worries about me.”

Pearl slid her hands down her face so that she was peeking over her fingertips.

Amethyst continued, “Except Jenny and-” she shook her head.  Not the point. “I don’t expect people to do that. Like, ever. But then you,” Amethyst waved in Pearl’s general direction, “get so worked up about stuff… about me, and I guess it doesn’t make sense to me?”

Pearl’s hands slid down so that she was just covering her mouth, and Amethyst shook her head again.  “I mean, I don’t get how you can get worried about me when it doesn’t really seem like it’s worth it.”

Pearl hung her hands on the collar of her sweater and knit her eyebrows at the floor.  “But…” she rubbed her cheek, “You know I care about you, right?”

Amethyst was quiet, staring wide-eyed at her shoes.  She felt her heart jump into her throat and tried to swallow it before it could leap out and away.  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed that it started raining. Pearl shuffled forward and hooked her right index finger with Amethyst’s left.  “Right?”

Amethyst laced their fingers together and pushed herself against Pearl.  She had to look up a bit to nod into Pearl’s collarbone.  “Yeah, I know. ‘Course I do.”

Pearl rested her chin on top of Amethyst’s head, “Okay. Good.”

It took a moment for Amethyst to notice that she wasn’t breathing. She pulled in a shaky breath and fiddled with the hem of Pearl’s sweater.  “Sorry,” she mumbled.  

Pearl turned her head so that her cheek was nuzzled into Amethyst’s hair. “What for?”

Amethyst shrugged. She knew very well why, but it was hard to put her words together with Pearl’s hand against the side of her neck. “Y’know, just… bein’ dumb,” was all she could manage.  

Pearl chuckled into the top of Amethyst’s head, “Well, if you were being dumb, then so was I,” her words were slightly muffled, and it made Amethyst smile for some reason.  “You’re just a nerd.”

Pearl guffawed and lifted her head up to retort, but she was cut short by a knock at the door.

Thump thump tha-thump thump.

There was a long pause.

Thump thump.

Amethyst recognized it immediately. She tensed, turning her head slowly over her shoulder like she was turning towards a monster in a horror movie. Pearl moved to answer it, unaware of Amethyst’s fearful reaction. She blocked Pearl’s path, shaking her head and trying to push her towards the kitchen. “N-no, dont-”

Thunk thunk thunk.

“Amethyst, what’s wrong?” Pearl stood her ground, more than a match for Amethyst’s trembling attempts to move her.  Pearl’s voice was too loud, he would hear. He would hear and then something awful would happen. Amethyst looked up at her and hissed, “Quiet!” through her teeth.

“What is it?” Pearl whispered back.

“It’s him, it’s Marty.”

\---

“What?” Pearl gave an alarmed look to the door and clenched her jaw at the thought of who was behind it.  Amethyst was shaking hard, and she had her arms clamped around Pearl’s waist like she’d sink into the floor if she let go.  What she could see of Amethyst’s face was pale.  She had a constant wince set into her brow, like she was expecting pain.  “Amethyst,” Pearl moved her hair and rubbed her arm, trying to get her to calm down. “What do you want me to do?”  Amethyst seemed to curl into herself with every word Pearl spoke, and Pearl was almost sure that she hadn’t heard a thing. “Amethyst, listen to me,” Pearl said, just before another set of knocks echoed throughout the room.

Thak thak thak thak.

They were more frantic, and the sound sharpened, like Marty had switched from the side of his fist to his knuckles.

Amethyst whimpered at the sound of it and buried her face into Pearl’s chest.  She was murmuring something into Pearl’s sweater, and it took a second for Pearl to realize that she was  saying “go away” over and over again. Her voice was high and tinged with fear.  Pearl set her jaw and forced her resolve to set with it. She rubbed Amethyst’s back and ran her fingers through her hair.  “Amethyst, I’m going to get him to go away. Do you want to hide?”

That seemed to get through to her. She stopped talking and nodded.

“Okay, let go,” Pearl patted Amethyst’s elbow. Amethyst gripped her tighter before loosening her arms, but she didn’t step away.  Pearl held her hand and guided her into the kitchen, where she crumpled and sat on the floor with her head on her knees and her arms tightly around her legs. “I’ll be right back,” Pearl said, and Amethyst nodded.

Pearl stood, lifting her chin decisively and forcefully holding her fists down at her sides. She stepped into the living room rigidly and then made her way quickly to the door.  She heaved a sigh, pushed her shoulders back, and opened it.

The man on the other side had his hand up to knock again, and shoved it into his coat pocket when he saw it swing in.  Pearl looked him up and down and frowned.  He kind of reminded her of Sour Cream somehow.  His hair was the same color, anyway, slightly matted from where the rain had gotten to it. He looked to be in his thirties, and Pearl was about his height. Her frown deepened when he smiled to show slightly sharpened teeth, like he’d taken a file to them.  “Hi there. I’m lookin’ for someone,” he waved a clipboard that Pearl hadn’t noticed before in the air between them.  “Name’s Amethyst Abaroa.  You know her?”  

Pearl scowled, “You know I do. You followed us here, didn’t you?”

Marty feigned surprise, “Wow, smarter than you look.”

“Excuse me?”

He continued as if he hadn’t heard her,“I’m just here to give the little lady some news,” he waggled the clipboard again, and Pearl had to exercise serious restraint to keep herself from snatching it out of his hand.

“Just tell me and get off my porch,” Pearl growled.

“Woah, calm down. As much as I enjoy messing with the runt,” he tilted his head towards the inside of the house, “she’s caused me more trouble than she’s worth. I just wanna get this done and be rid of her. So here,” he finally took a file from the board and handed it over. Pearl’s blood was boiling at this point, and she gripped the file hard enough to crinkle it.

She tensed further when Marty leaned past her and shouted into the house, “You sure you don’t want to come and say goodbye, sweetheart?”

Pearl grabbed a fistful of his jacket and moved him in front of her. Her voice was low and full of malice, “If you don’t get off of my porch and far away from my house right now, I will make sure that you rot in a prison cell.”

Marty’s eyes changed for an instant; Pearl thought she saw anger or fear or both flash by, and then it was gone with a truly sickening sneer.  “Well aren’t you feisty?”

Pearl nearly gagged and shoved him away. “Leave. Now.”

“Aww, don’t be like that,” he smirked and took a step forward. Pearl balled her hands into fists, ready to punch him in his slimy face, and she would have if she didn’t feel Amethyst push past her and step outside.  She rushed forward before Pearl could so much as blink and broke Marty’s nose with a satisfying crunch.

“Ahh, fuck!” he whined, blood pouring out quickly and mixing with the puddles forming on the ground.

Amethyst shoved him to the sidewalk, “Fuck off!” she shouted.

He backpedaled and slunk away, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Crazy bitch!” he said over his shoulder.

Amethyst stayed in the rain until he shrunk from the distance. Pearl stood still in the doorway, and then strode out into the building downpour when Amethyst turned towards the house. “Are you alright?”

Amethyst looked up at her with a strange expression tweaking the corner of her mouth.  Pearl thought it might have been part relief and part satisfaction.  There was still anxiety wrinkling the corners of her eyes, but it didn’t seem as crippling as it had been a few minutes ago.  She was still trembling, and she was breathing like she’d just run a marathon, but at least she was standing. “I..”  her breath hitched like she was crying and she had to catch it before starting again. “I think I broke it.”

Pearl didn’t know what to say to that.  It must have shown on her face, because a nearly humorless laugh burst out of Amethyst like a hiccup before she covered her mouth to hide a sob.  Pearl lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Amethyst’s rattling shoulders, “Come on, let’s go inside.”

Amethyst led the way, and Pearl noticed the file that Marty had given her on the ground in front of the door with a few papers sticking out of the open side.  She must have dropped it at some point. It was still slightly crinkled from when she was holding it, but it wasn’t wet.  Pearl almost chucked it into the street, but thought better of it and tapped the haywire papers back inside before she closed the door.  

She set it down on the coffee table in front of the couch and grumbled when the papers slid back out.  Amethyst came up behind her and sniffed, “What’s that?” Her voice was droopy and cracked from holding back tears.  Pearl barely heard her, and didn’t respond, because the paper that had defiantly climbed out of the file folder was staring her down.

"Pearl?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/119173380020/taken-for-your-word


	8. Chapter 8

Amethyst joined Pearl in staring at the piece of paper that was peeking out at them from its place in Marty’s file.  The only word visible sent a chill down her spine. She tilted her head to make sure she was seeing it correctly. “Deceased?” she croaked incredulously. Amethyst felt confusion make her dizzy for a moment before the pieces started putting themselves together in the front of her mind.  She was still feeling the shockwaves of the attack in stray tears and tremors and sobs, so it was hard to tell the difference between her reaction to Marty and her sudden and desperate hope that this wasn’t what she thought it was.  She really hoped this wasn’t what she thought it was.  Amethyst brought her hand slowly up to the edge of the page and then tugged it into full view, like she was ripping off a bandage.

The first thing Amethyst’s eyes focused on was a picture printed in the top left corner of the page, showing a woman in her mid-thirties looking straight at the camera.  It was either a license photo or a mugshot.  That wasn’t the important part, though. Amethyst’s heart sank to the soles of her shoes when she saw that the woman in the picture had her nose.  And the shape of her face.  And her eyes.  Or, rather, Amethyst had her’s.

“G-god damn it…” Amethyst squeezed her eyes shut and pushed the heels of her hands into them.  She pushed until she saw stars and tried to hold down the torrent of panic that rose in her like a wave.

“Can’t be…” Pearl murmured to herself.  “Maybe it’s… your aunt? That has to be it, right?” Pearl flipped the folder open to the page that had been behind the first.  It looked like medical test results.  Amethyst watched with blurry, distorted vision as Pearl scanned them for a second, before she turned away from the table entirely and sobbed into Pearl’s shoulder. She heard Pearl fretfully mutter the words “maternal” and “positive” along with the sound of pages fluttering as she searched through the folder.  “This has to be… some kind of… joke…” Pearl said weakly.  

Frustration broiled in the pit of Amethyst’s stomach and she whirled around, snatched the papers up, and pitched them into the corner next to the TV. The folder made them heavy and they fwapped against the wall without so much as a flutter.  Amethyst wanted to scream, or hit something, or both, but all she could do was fall and blubber uselessly into the carpet.  

Pearl jumped back and away when Amethyst collapsed.  Amethyst could hear her prattling to herself, but she just kept crying.  It was all she had the energy to do.  She felt Pearl’s hand on her back for an instant before it was gone.  It sounded like she’d left the room.  

Everything closed in on her; the sound of blood rushing in her ears, the rattling breath in her lungs, and the air around her pressed in on her and squeezed.  She felt like she was spinning and stationary at the same time.  It was nauseating, and she surprised herself when she was able to hold down her fries.  She wailed and cursed between loud sobs and gasps for air, and it was a while before she could breathe without crying out.  It was around then, when she’d begun to quiet down, that she jumped when something fell on her back, seemingly from thin air.  She looked up from her fetal position on the floor to see Pearl kneel and adjust the towel that she’d dropped over Amethyst’s wet hair.  Her eyes were crinkled with worry, and something else, but Amethyst didn’t know what it was.  She pulled in a shaky breath and noticed that Pearl had a towel on her head and draped over her shoulders like a cowl.  The shadow it created made the hard-to-place look in her eye seem somber.  

Pearl was blocked from view momentarily when she started drying off Amethyst’s bangs.  Her still-sporadic breathing made it hard to talk, so after, “Y- Pearl,” tripped past her teeth, she just sat there and wept while Pearl dried the rest of her hair.  Well, as best she could with a towel, but she was meticulous, and made a good job of it regardless.  It calmed Amethyst down some, too. She he wasn’t having that much trouble breathing anymore, but her tears still flowed with no intention of stopping.  

Amethyst pouted and puffed a bellyaching breath through her mouth when Pearl started to scrub her cheeks with the towel.  “I can do that, P,” she snuffled, but didn’t stop Pearl from tilting her chin up to wipe the other side of her face.  Amethyst almost didn’t have the energy to be flustered, but her pulse lurched nonetheless.  It didn’t really pick up speed, it just felt heavier; like her heart was weighing down on everything that sat underneath it and making it surge.  

Amethyst stopped Pearl’s hands for a second and felt them trembling.  “Are you okay?” she asked as more tears escaped, only to be wiped away with the towel.  Pearl didn’t answer.  “Hey, listen,” Amethyst took the towel away and hid it behind her back.  “What’s up with you?” Amethyst wiped more tears away with the back of her hand, “You haven’t talked in a while.”

Pearl hunched her shoulders and fiddled with her bracelet.  She pursed her lips and moved her hands like she was going to say something, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out.  She shook her head and tried again. “You okay?” Her voice sounded quiet, and kind of broken.  A paradoxical smile overtook Amethyst’s face for a second, “No.”

Pearl started rocking and put the soles of her feet together in a butterfly position.  She looked like she was solving a puzzle, like if she thought hard enough she could make Amethyst feel better somehow. Fat chance.  

“Kitchen?” Pearl was still rocking, but she tilted her head towards the doorway behind Amethyst.  

“What?”

“Kitchen.”

“You wanna go to the kitchen?”

Pearl shook her head, “No, you.”

“Oh, uhh, okay,” Amethyst got up and felt a migraine coming on from all the crying she was still doing.  She rubbed her temple and got to the couch before she noticed that Pearl wasn’t following her.  “Um, are you coming with me?”  

Pearl shook her head, “Kitchen.”

Amethyst raised an eyebrow at that and shrugged, “Okay,” she lifted her shirt and wiped her face off with it, “Whatever you say.”

\---

Pearl slumped when Amethyst left the room.  This was awful.  This was worse than awful, absolutely horrendous.  She didn’t know how to look at Amethyst without wanting to say she was sorry.  Pearl felt nearly constant pangs in her chest, worried that she would do or say something that would accidentally make this whole calamity worse than it already was.  She sighed, rubbing the towel on her head into her still-wet hair, and got up to search for the folder Amethyst had thrown across the room.  The sight of it made her stomach churn, but she just gritted her teeth and picked it up.  She flipped it open and hoped for the best, looking for a family tree, or a contact list, or something that would make this all a little less devastating.  

“Pearl!  What are you doing in there?”  Amethyst hollered impatiently from the kitchen.  Pearl snapped the file closed and looked over her shoulder like she’d been caught doing something illegal.  She relaxed a little when she saw that Amethyst had stayed where she’d asked.  Well, ‘implied’ would be a better word than ‘asked’, but at least she’d still gotten her meaning across.

Pearl peeked into the kitchen with the file behind her back, happy to see that Amethyst had finally stopped crying.  She had her head down on the counter, and peeked over her arms when Pearl came in.  Pearl inched to the other side of the table in an attempt to hide the file from view.  She didn’t really know why, it just seemed like the best course of action, previous events considered.  Amethyst caught on pretty quickly, though, and she glowered at Pearl’s midsection like she could see through it.  “Why don’t we just burn that thing?  It’d be more useful that way,” she mumbled irritably.

Pearl pulled the file out from behind her back and frowned at it, “How would that make it useful?”  Her voice sounded kind of scattered; she was still getting her words back.

“I don’t know!” Pearl flinched when Amethyst threw her hands up and then let them drop onto the table.  “Better than makin’ me feel like garbage.”

Pearl put the file down and tentatively opened it again before she spoke.  “At least it helped you find someone, right?”  The look Amethyst had on gave her the idea that that had been the wrong thing to say.  

“She’s dead, Pearl.  Dead.  I’ve waited my entire life for someone to come along and… e-even though I know that’s probably not likely, and then I finally get something and she’s dead.”

Pearl stammered, “That’s not- I-,”  and then fell silent, fiddling with the corner of the front page.  She silently cursed her tendency to put her foot in her mouth, “I’m sorry.”  

Amethyst just shrugged and looked glumly at the table.  Pearl didn’t like that look of defeat on Amethyst’s face.  It didn’t seem like her to get beaten down by something.  Pearl sucked on her teeth, trying to mull her words over before she let them out.  “Do you want to know what her name was?” she said quietly.  Pearl thought she saw fear, or something like it, flash across Amethyst’s face before she shrugged with obviously faux nonchalance.

“Lily.  Lily Diamond.”  

Amethyst bit her lip before most of her face disappeared behind her arms, which she’d crossed over the table.  Pearl didn’t know whether that was a sign to stop or continue, so she tested the water a bit.  “She was thirty-seven,” Pearl shuffled through the papers in search of more information, “O-positive.  I guess they compared that to your - you’ve been arrested?!”

Amethyst jumped out from behind her arms and screwed up her face, “Just read me more stuff about my mom!”

Mumbling, Pearl reminded herself to ask about that later, and flipped through a few more pages.  It was mostly just medical information about both Amethyst and Lily Diamond, until the last page.  Pearl stopped short, lifted it out , and brought it close to her face so she could squint disbelievingly at it.  

“What?” Amethyst leaned onto the table in an attempt to get a good look at the front of the paper.  Pearl handed it over, trying her hardest to hold down a triumphant expression.  She found herself bouncing on her heels because this had to make her feel at least a little better, right?  Amethyst took it and slumped back into her seat, her face obscured by the page in front of it.  Pearl felt the corners of her mouth twitch a little when Amethyst’s posture straightened in astonishment.  The paper fwapped into her lap with her hands, and she sat there with her mouth hanging open for a second.  

“I have sisters,” she said.  She had this glad little smile tilting her mouth up that made  Pearl want to laugh; she always seemed to feel that way when Amethyst smiled.  She stopped bouncing, leaned on the table, and risked a grin, “See?  It’s not so bad.  I mean, not as bad.  As it could be.”

Amethyst just looked at Pearl for a second, and Pearl thought she was going to start crying again, because her eyebrows were knit together like she was holding it back.  Pearl was trying to think of something more to say when Amethyst reached across the table, grabbed her collar, and pulled her over it.  Pearl squeaked and forced her shocked eyes closed because Amethyst was kissing her.  Her hands sort of spasmed before one of them found Amethyst’s wrist and the other clenched into a fist before she kissed back. The noise Amethyst made in response sent a warm shiver up Pearl’s back that settled on her shoulders.  She turned her head a little when Amethyst’s hand came up to rest against the side of her neck.  Everything about this was really warm and nice and wow she must have completely blanked, because suddenly they weren’t kissing anymore, and Pearl was just sitting there with her eyes closed and her forehead against Amethyst’s.  

Pearl opened eyes and her gaze immediately snapped to Amethyst’s cheekbone when their eyes met for a second.  The sudden eye contact made her jump, and she felt a sharp twinge in her hip that made her realize that she was technically on top of the table.  

“Uhh, Amethyst?” Pearl said quietly, rubbing her thumb against Amethyst’s wrist.

“Hmm?” she sounded dazed.

“The table’s kind of… stabbing me,” Pearl patted Amethyst’s wrist this time.

That seemed to pull Amethyst out of whatever stupor she’d been in, because her eyes widened and she snatched the hand that had still been holding Pearl’s collar away, “Sorry!”

Pearl slid off the table and onto the floor on the side opposite Amethyst, where she’d been before she’d gotten tugged over and kissed and oh geez that really just happened, didn’t it?  Amethyst had kissed her.  A lot.  And now she was just standing there watching Amethyst turn red and she needed to say something.  Pearl flapped her hands and almost smacked her palm into her face because all she could manage was “Gah-ie-ah-uhm.”  She still slapped her hand over her mouth and felt her face heat up when Amethyst looked at her from under her bangs.  

A slow smile crept across Amethyst’s flushed face, and she was obviously holding her breath.  Pearl was probably stark red now, or at least it felt that way, and she didn’t know if she should try to say something again because Amethyst was still smiling at her, and-

Amethyst let out a big laugh, the kind that made Pearl feel like her bones were hooked up to a concert bass, and said, “You’re cute,” all in the same breath.  It took Pearl a moment to catch up with all of that, but when she did, she simpered into her hand and held back a relieved giggle.  “Uhm, you too,” was out from behind her hand before she knew she was even talking.  She covered her eyes with the same clammy palm when the words reached her ears.  Aparently thinking about Amethyst and talking weren’t things she could safely do at the same time.

Pearl heard Amethyst giggle again and glanced up when she heard her climb onto the table to sit in front of her.  “Sorry about, y’know, stabbing you with a table,” Amethyst mumbled hesitantly.  Pearl let a nervous laugh bubble up and wiped her palms on her jeans.  She was starting to feel less… exposed.  The last minute or so had been weird: she hadn’t been able to tell if she should be acting differently than she normally would around Amethyst, or if them kissing had somehow turned that on its head.  At least Amethyst didn’t seem like she’d start to panic again.  Pearl shuffled closer to Amethyst, starting to feel protectiveness come back at the thought of her being hurt or sad or scared.  

It must have shown in her expression, because Amethyst grabbed the front of Pearl’s shirt a tugged her closer so that her head was tucked underneath Pearl’s chin.  “I’m okay,” Amethyst shifted so that her head rested on Pearl’s shoulder, “I mean, stuff still sucks, but… yeah. I’m okay.”

\---

Amethyst wrapped her arms around Pearl and smiled at the happy buzz near the bottom of her stomach.  It turned from a buzz to butterflies when Pearl hugged her back.  She pushed away any lingering thoughts about Marty and her biological mother and focused on Pearl and how she actually cared enough to make sure she was alright.

“Thanks,” she nuzzled into the crook of Pearl’s neck and hugged her tighter.  

“You’re welcome,” Pearl sounded kind of dismissive, and she probably didn’t mean to, but Amethyst wanted to make sure.

“I mean it,” Amethyst made a split-second decision and pressed a little kiss into Pearl’s jaw.  “You’re awesome,” was mumbled sheepishly into the space behind Pearl’s ear.  

"Oh, uhm," Pearl's voice was breathy, and she almost tripped over what few words she was saying. "Okay."

Amethyst let out a beguiled ,,hum in response and let the conversation go for a minute.   Pearl started to fiddle with Amethyst's hair, and sigh through her nose, and shuffled her feet. The gears clicking and turning in Pearl's head were nearly audible.

"What's 'a matter?" Amethyst loosened her arms and leaned back a bit to give Pearl some space.  

Pearl was quiet for a second, and then, "You kissed me."

Amethyst felt a nervous twinge cover up her butterflies for a second, and then widdle its way in among them so it could churn her stomach if it wanted to.  "Uh, yeah."

Pearl furrowed her eyebrows and stuck her lips out in a slightly confused pout, "Does that- I mean, am I supposed to- ehrm," she rubbed at the blush on her cheek and then waved her hands around as if that would help her find the words.  

"Supposed to what?" Amethyst interjected in an attempt to help.   

“Suppos-n-I mean,” she puffed an irritated breath and continued, “Are we...going to do...‘us’ stuff...now?” Pearl said it in little bursts, and looked in several different directions with almost every short pause.  

Amethyst’s face went blank except for slightly widened eyes and hiked-up eyebrows.  It took a crazy amount of self control to stop herself from just flat out kissing Pearl again because the adorable nerd just said “us stuff”.  Amethyst found herself smiling like an idiot and realized that she hadn’t answered just long enough for Pearl to get more nervous and fidgety than she already was.  Instead of answering the question, like she meant to, she just said, “Us stuff,” with a goofy laugh tacked onto the end of her sentence.  

She snapped herself out of it with a short gasp, “I mean yeah. Yes. Us stuff.”

Pearl hugged herself and let out a relieved laugh, “Oh, okay. Good.”

They were both kind of quiet and smiley for a second, and then Pearl grabbed Amethyst’s hand, pressing her thumbs into her palm and tracing the lines on it with her fingertips.   Amethyst uncrossed her legs and let them swing over the table at Pearl’s sides.  She watched Pearl’s fingers move for a second before looking up and smiling at the content look on her face.  Pearl’s smile was soft, and it reached her eyes in the form of a certain warmth that Amethyst felt when she looked at the little crinkles around the edges.  She was just really beautiful and nice and Amethyst wanted to kiss her again.

"Hey," Amethyst laced their fingers together and nudged Pearl closer with her heel against the back of Pearl's leg.  "C'mere."

Pearl squeezed Amethyst’s hand in surprise and almost immediately turned a shade of pink.  Amethyst pressed a giggle and a peck into the corner of Pearl’s mouth, waiting for Pearl’s affirmative head-tilt before leaning forward again.  

Amethyst was pretty sure that she’d suddenly forgotten how to breathe.  She was melting and being electrocuted at the same time, and the friction at her lips made her dizzy.  She hummed from the back of her throat when Pearl rolled her bottom lip in and bumped it with her teeth.

Just then, Pearl tensed and yanked away with a huge gasp and eyes the size of saucers.

“Oh my god!”  she shouted.

Amethyst jumped and nearly fell off the table, “What?!”

Pearl flapped her hands and spun towards the phone in a panic, “I- I forgot to call Rose!  Garnet told me to- oh my goodness,” Pearl snatched the phone off of its perch on the wall and started dialing numbers.

Amethyst heaved a sigh, her hand over her heart in recovery from a tiny heart attack.  “Geez, Pearl,” she wheezed.  

“What?” Pearl had the receiver to her ear and one hand pulling the collar of her t-shirt away from her throat.  She was only half-listening to Amethyst, her attention probably spent on listening to the low hums that told her that Rose’s phone was ringing.

Amethyst sucked on her bottom lip and ran her tongue over it, “I think you bit me.”

Pearl stepped over, sliding the phone down so that the earpiece was against her chest, “I did?” her brow was knit with concern.  

Amethyst shrugged, “Yeah, no biggie.”

Pearl shuffled her feet and fiddled with her collar; she seemed to be considering something.  She colored a bit and then leaned in to kiss Amethyst on the cheek, “Sorry.”

Amethyst grinned and almost said “aww” out loud.  What a dork.  

Pearl held the phone with both hands as she stepped back a bit, “I like it when your nose does that.”

Amethyst crossed her eyes, “What does my nose do?”

Pearl scrunched up her nose and closed her eyes with it, “This.”

Amethyst felt her face heat up and rubbed her nose, “Oh, cool.”  She hadn’t ever noticed that before.  The thought that Pearl liked something that she didn’t even know she did made her butterflies come back.

A faint voice came from the phone, and Pearl brought it to her ear at lightspeed.  

“Hello?”  there was a slight pause, “Yes, it’s me, I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier, I just forgot, and we’ve been home for a while, and yeah.  I’m okay.”  Another pause settled, and Amethyst leaned in to catch, “...been doing?”

The blush on Pearl’s face clawed at her ears and pooled around her neck as she glanced at Amethyst.  Pearl shrugged and looked at everything in the room like Rose was in front of her, “Oh, you know w- just- stuff.  Doing stuff.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/120912795530/taken-for-your-word


	9. Chapter 9

“Hello, Seven!”

Pearl took him as carefully as she could from Rose, who was resting on the couch, and held him close to her chest.  The baby grabbed her index finger and giggled when she slowly spun him, making airplane noises with her lips.  She twirled a few times, and stopped when she saw Amethyst smiling at her from the kitchen.  

“Say, ‘hi,’ Steven,” Pearl cooed gently, wiggling her finger to make Steven wave in Amethyst’s direction.  She felt an accomplished hike in her pulse when Amethyst’s nose scrunched up for a second as she returned the wave.  

“Pearl,” Rose said amicably from from her seat, “I think I’m going to put him to bed now.”

“Oh, right,” Pearl turned round and let Rose take him, but Steven didn’t let go of her finger.  “You have to go to bed now, baby,” Pearl tugged a bit and waited for is grip to loosen.  

“I’m glad you came over today,” Rose murmured, “I was starting to miss you.”

“I call every day, Rose.”  Steven released her finger and curled his into tiny fists.

“It’s not the same as having you here,” she adjusted her baby’s head, “It’s so quiet.”

Pearl felt a stirring in her chest and squashed it.  She refused to put herself through that again, especially since Amethyst-

Rose touched her arm, pulling out of her internal scolding, “I know, being on your own is good.  And you’ve got a roommate now, and the show, but don’t forget to stop by every once in awhile, okay?”

Pearl pushed down the resentment that came up, too, and smiled, “Of course.”  She hoped it had seemed genuine.

Rose got up and went upstairs, leaving Pearl to fidget with uncomfortable thoughts and count the beads on her bracelet.  She got to five before the sound of dishes clinking together made her look up.  Amethyst was cleaning the mess she had made cooking dinner.  Pearl thought it was a bit unfair for the cook to clean, so she made her way over and cleared her throat when she got to the counter.  

Amethyst turned around to see Pearl switch from crossing her arms, to leaning on the table, and then shoving her clammy hands into her pockets, “Hi.”

Pearl’s stomach flip-flopped at Amethyst’s raspy chortle.  “Hi there.”  She picked up a fork from the tabletop next to Pearl and dropped it in the sink, “What’s up?”

“Just,” Pearl strode to the sink, “Coming to help you with the dishes.”  She wiped her palms on her jeans hastily before pushing her sleeves up.  The sweater she’d swapped with the wet one from that afternoon was a bit baggy, but the cuffs held the sleeves around her elbows well enough when she folded them.  

“Uhh, thanks.”  Amethyst sidled up next to her and grabbed a rag.  That was how they did it at home: Pearl washed, Amethyst dried.  

Pearl slowed to a stop and stared at the sponge in her hand when she realized how easily she’d thought of her house as ‘home.’  It hadn’t really happened before.  

“Everything okay over there?”

Pearl jumped slightly and blinked down at Amethyst, before she nodded and wrung the sponge, “Uhh-hm.”  She pulled the dishes to the left of the sink closer, and noticed Amethyst glance behind them towards the sitting area.  

She edged closer and bumped Pearl with her shoulder, “Something happen?”

The faucet squeaked as it turned under the taller one’s hand, “I suppose.”  The tap was warm as it filled the sink, and Pearl liked how the pressure felt on the knuckle of her thumb.  

Amethyst looked over her shoulder again and slid her hand around Pearl’s waist.  “Was it a bad something?”

Pearl leaned into the contact reflexively and put her arm about Amethyst’s shoulders, “ I don’t think so.”  She pulled he slipknot on her bracelet loose and set it on the edge of the sink.  

Amethyst dried Pearl’s hand with the rag and swayed a little.  Pearl followed suit and shifted from foot to foot, “A lot of things are changing all at once, and it’s weird to think about.”

“Pumpkin pie weird?”

It took a moment for Pearl to understand what Amethyst was referring to, “Oh, no, it’s not bad.”  She set her hand on top of Amethyst’s, the one on her hip, “Different.  Not bad.”

Amethyst nodded, and pulled away after swaying for another few seconds.  She looked at the sitting area for a third time, and Pearl looked too.  Garnet was sitting up there, watching something on tv.  Her eyebrows climbed in surprise before she turned around to switch the faucet off.  Steam curled from the water, and she felt it on her arms as she reached over it to grab a plate.  

“Are you-” Pearl lowered her voice self-consciously, “Do you not like… being affectionate- around other people?”

“Whu-uhh,” Amethyst took the clean plate and nearly dropped it, “I don’t really care… but I didn’t know if you did, or, whatever.”

Pearl pursed a coy smile and checked if Garnet was watching- she wasn’t- before leaning down and kissing Amethyst on the cheek, “Thank you.”

Amethyst hid behind her hair and put the dry plate down, “Mmhm.”

“I don’t mind it,” she handed over a mug and answered the tacit question, “To a point.”

The mug was replaced with a fork, and there was another nod from Amethyst.

She might have been noticing things that weren’t there, but Amethyst seemed withdrawn, and Pearl worried about anxiety attacks again.  The mostly one-sided conversation petered out, and the only sound in the huge, open room was the rain echoing off the roof, the clinking of dishes underwater, and the soft murmur of the tv a distance away.  

Pearl glanced at Amethyst nearly every five seconds.  The odd mix of elation and worry that had been buzzing simultaneously in the pit of her stomach all evening was confusing, but not unmanageable.  Amethyst was the source of both, of course, but she herself seemed perfectly fine most of the time.  

Despite what Pearl was pretty sure- almost positive- were meaningful (albeit one-sided) looks, they didn’t talk much about… the kiss… thing… with Rose and the others.  She was far from ashamed of it, but she still felt like it should be private.  Besides avoiding bringing it up in conversation, she hadn’t really made an effort to hide it, either; she and Amethyst were already physically affectionate, so she didn’t think anyone would notice a change unless they saw something blatantly romantic.  

Huh.  ‘Romantic.’  That felt different, too.

“What’s the joke?”

“What?”  Pearl was pulled out of her thoughts, surprised to feel a smile turning the corners of her mouth.

“You kinda laughed.  What’s so funny?”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

Pearl shook herself and her head, “N-no, I mean- I was just thinking about…” Amethyst’s attentive expression reminded her of something from that afternoon, “us stuff.”

The first time she’d said that was pretty much accidental, but she liked how it sounded.  Amethyst did, too apparently, because she was laughing and bumping Pearl with her shoulder, “Shut up, ya big nerd.”

Pearl decided not to take that literally and returned the nudge before pulling the plug to empty the sink.  The warmth in her chest spread to her head and made it fuzzy as the water spun lazily into the drain.  She looked at Amethyst sideways and felt the overwhelming need to be at least a foot closer.

“Ah-hem.”

Pearl jumped, and Amethyst turned around calmly before Pearl followed suit, if a bit more apprehensively.  Garnet adjusted her shades and leaned on the table, "I'm off to bed.  You two should go, too."

Pearl pushed her sleeve down with her heartbeat and followed Amethyst to stand in front of Garnet before doubling back for her bracelet.  Shouldn't forget that.

"Yeah, we will.  Why do you wear those inside, dude?"

"That's top secret," Garnet smiled, and Pearl got the feeling that she might be winking.

"Aww what?" Amethyst slumped dramatically over the table and pouted, "Why can't you tell me, G?"

"I don't think you can handle it yet."

"Yeah,right," Amethyst scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Now I'm just gonna imagine crazy stuff until you show me."

Garnet chuckled and turned to head upstairs, "Goodnight."

\---

Amethyst tugged her hair out of the borrowed shirt and smirked when one of the straps slipped off of her shoulder.  Cool.  

She wrangled a bunch of the mane into a haphazard ponytail, leaving her bangs down to cover most of her face.  A flick of her head adjusted it so that she could see the half-hearted smile that she tested out in the mirror.  It seemed to be presentable, considering how bad Pearl was at noticing fake smiles.  The trick was looking at the eyes.  

Letting it fall into an indifferent frown, Amethyst pushed the bathroom door open and padded down the hall to her left, towards Pearl's old room.  The hinges whispered as she pushed in, and then squeaked softly when she gasped and pulled it closer to the frame.  

"Sorry," Amethyst rasped, "I thought you might be done already."

"No, I am."  The door swung in, and out of Amethyst's hand.  "Just finished."

Amethyst tried not to obviously look Pearl up and down and pointed to the bathroom, "D'you have an extra toothbrush?"

"Uhh... maybe."  The teal gown rustled as Pearl brushed past, with Amethyst at her heels.  They passed Lion on their way, who received a soft pat from Pearl and a gruff rustle from Amethyst.  

The latter pushed the image of the tops of Pearl's legs as a dress fell over them away, and watched her sift through the drawer under the sink.  The two-second movie adamantly shoved its way to the front of her mind and replayed a few times before the drawer thudded shut and snapped Amethyst to attention.

"Rose might have one.  I'll go look."

"Thanks, h- P."

She waited until Pearl was out of sight and slumped, slapping a hand over her eyes.  'Hon?'  Really?  They weren't an old married couple for crap's sake!  

Amethyst scrubbed her face and groaned.  Tonight was going to be a long one if she kept tip-toeing like this.  She was certain Pearl hadn't noticed, but she probably would, eventually.  And when she did, Amethyst would have to talk about why.  The thought gave her stomach a grim churn.

The floorboards creaked to Amethyst's right, and she looked up to see Pearl triumphantly brandishing a toothbrush wrapped in plastic.  Amethyst couldn’t help but smile a little and offered a high-five, "Nice one."

"Thank you.  I try."  Pearl shrugged in that bouncy way she had when she was trying to be funny.  Amethyst usually grinned at the twitchy little jolt instead of the customarily lame joke; her mannerisms were just a tiny bit cuter than her sense of humor, in Amethyst's opinion.

Pearl papped her cold palm against Amethyst's and handed over the toothbrush with a reserved chuckle.  Amethyst opened it against her thigh like it was a straw from a fast food chain and was followed into the bathroom.  

“Did you get the purple one on purpose?”

Pearl raised an eyebrow and dragged out a skeptical, “Yyyes.”

A genuine laugh rolled from the back of Amethyst’s throat as she elbowed Pearl in the side, “Yeah, right.”  Her voice lowered affectionately, “Dork.”

After a nearly incomprehensible conversation spoken around toothpaste froth, some leering, and another honest laugh from Amethyst, they both walked back to Pearl’s old room, stepping over Lion on the way.

“Oh… crap.”

Amethyst was more than surprised at Pearl’s sudden profanity, and turned to blink at her with a bewildered twirl in the center of her chest.  

“Ahhh-I… mean… crud…”

Amethyst’s shock turned into mischievous grin, “Wow, where did that come from, huh?”

“I- b- just- forgot my blanket,” Pearl crossed her arms in an attempt to compose herself.  “It’s hard to sleep without it, okay?”

“Is it a safety blanket?” she mocked.

“It’s a weighted blanket and I really do need it to go to sleep.”

Amethyst frowned at the fun-sponge and put her hands on her hips, “Don’t you have a backup here?  And whaddaya need a weighted blanket for anyway?”

Pearl sagged, “No… i-it’s for pressure.  I can’t sleep without something pushing down on top of me.  It doesn’t feel right otherwise.”

“Hm,” Amethyst scratched beneath her chin, “can’t you just pile a bunch o' blankets on top of you?”

“I suppose I’ll have to,” she grumbled, “You can lay down, I’ll do it.”

“You sure?”

“Mmhm.”

Amethyst went to her spot on the floor and hugged her pillow as Pearl swept in and out of the room, carrying an abundance of quilts, blankets, and comforters.  She had a hefty pile by the third or fourth trip, and she had to flip the layered covering up with both forearms before getting into bed.

“Okay,” Pearl huffed, “Goodnight, Amethyst.”

Amethyst smirked at the tiny bump Pearl made from underneath all of the blankets.  “Night.”

She spent the next few minutes absently thinking up food-related pet names for Pearl that started with ‘P.’  ‘Peaches ‘n’ cream’ was her favorite after ‘Pierogi.’

After the silence of a dormant house settled in, Pearl broke it with an irritated sigh and some shuffling to roll over onto her stomach.  The sleepiness that had crept up behind Amethyst’s eyes ran away, and she started thinking about food again.  She wondered if Pearl even liked pierogies.

Another harrumph echoed throughout the room, but there was less shuffling this time.  Amethyst squinted up at the bed and doubted the mountain of blankets was going to work.  They were either uncomfortable, or Pearl had something on her mind.  She opted for the former when another huff came from the cloth hill.  

“Pearl?”

“What?”

Amethyst sat up, “Look, I can get you some more blankets or something-”

“No, it’s fine.  I don’t think this is going to work, anyway.”  Pearl propped herself up onto her elbows and frowned at her pillow before rolling over onto her back and puffing air at the ceiling.  

“Hey,” she got to her feet and took her pillow with her to the edge of Pearl’s bed.  “What’s your opinion on pierogies?”

Pearl squinted from under her arms, which were crossed above her eyes, “I don’t know what that is.”

“Okay, that’s ridiculous.”

“What?  What is it?”

“They’re like, dumplings.”

Pearl sat up and rested her chin on top of her knees, “Are you going to make me try them?”

“You know me so well.”

She smiled in that crinkly way that made Amethyst’s stomach do backflips and giggled into the blankets covering her legs.  A little twinge of pride made Amethyst’s heart pick up; she loved making Pearl laugh.  

Amethyst scooted a little closer and nuzzled her pillow, “You’re really pretty.”

A low buzz settled under the skin of her shoulders, and she tried not to look right at Pearl.  She’d spent weeks holding back comments like that, so actually letting them go was adrenaline-inducing.

“Uhh- thank you.  I mean, you, too.”  

Amethyst could practically feel her face change colors and hid the bottom half of it in her pillow.  She was very aware of Pearl getting closer and shivered when she started messing with her hair.  

“Amethyst,” she dragged her fingers partly through the other’s bangs, “are you okay?”

Amethyst all but leaned into Pearl’s palm and lied, “Yeah, I’m good.”  

Pearl nodded and slipped her left hand around Amethyst’s waist, keeping her right in her hair.  She let herself get pulled all the way onto the bed and put her head on Pearl’s shoulder.  Her heart was in her throat, and she wouldn’t be surprised if Pearl could hear it.  

“Can you lay on me?” Pearl mumbled.

Amethyst thought she might not have heard that right, “What?”

She rubbed Amethyst’s side and contracted the fingers in her hair, “For- the pressure thing.  You don’t have to, I just thought it was better than not sleeping, and being close to you is a lot better than… not- oh boy.”

Amethyst let out an enthused laugh and put her pillow aside so she could hug Pearl around the waist.  Pearl tensed up for a second before she melted into it and rested her cheek on the top of Amethyst's head.  

“So you want me to be your blanket?”

She felt Pearl mess with the hem at the back of her shirt, “Mm.  Essentially.”

Amethyst hummed and pushed her heart back into her chest with a quiet gulp before bowling Pearl over and onto her back.  She yelped in surprise, but the outcry was soon replaced with drunken laughter.  “Give me a warning,” Pearl murmured.  

“It wouldn’t be surprising if I gave you a warning, P,” Amethyst planted a kiss on Pearl’s jaw and pulled her arms from their entrapment between her back and the mattress.  “I’m ‘onna get under the covers.”

Pearl nodded succinctly- Amethyst thought she might be blushing, but it was hard to tell in the dark- and sat up a bit so Amethyst could climb underneath the mountainous pile of blankets.  

It was really warm pressed between what was probably a pound or two of cloth and another person.  Amethyst liked it, though; it was comforting, yet nerve wracking, considering who that other person was.

"How d'you want my arms to be?"

"Eehm, I don't know," Pearl put her arms around Amethyst's neck and wiggled her elbows, referring to the space under her shoulders, "Under here?"

Amethyst tucked her arms in between Pearl's shoulder blades and the mattress so she could nestle against her neck with her nose.  She sighed against the underside of Pearl's jaw, trying to make her heart slow down.  It didn't work very well.

Pearl made a crackly little humming noise when Amethyst settled in, which, of course, made her chest feel heavier than it had two seconds before.  She felt the need to sigh again, or to breathe through her mouth like she'd been running.

Amethyst went with the little wheeze and swallowed her heart for a second or third time since she'd gotten on the bed.  She had to hold back a gasp when Pearl's fingers got tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck.  

"Thank you.  For helping me sleep."  She murmured like she was already halfway there.

"Nope.  Problem, no problem," Amethyst stammered around the thrumming in her chest that reached up to grab her voice.  She tried to focus on something else, but the dark thoughts from that afternoon and most of the night came crawling back, so she pressed herself against Pearl as much as she could and attempted to clear her head.  

It didn't work at first, but as the prickly feeling of panic hiked her breathing, she heard something that distracted her, just a little.  After listening for another moment, she figured out what it was: Pearl's heartbeat.  It was loud and brusque, but not to the point where she'd have trouble sleeping.  The rhythm gave her something to focus on, besides how good Pearl smelled, and how awesome being this close to her was.  It was like a really long, comfortable hug.  

"Am'thyst..."

She felt her eyelashes brush against Pearl's neck as she looked up, the small vibration having surprised her.

"Hm?"

Pearl didn't talk again for a moment, and Amethyst thought she might have spoken in her sleep.  That is, until her fingers twitched against the back of Amethyst's neck again.

"G... n... night..."

Amethyst had a sudden and inexplicable need to cry.  She held it down and nodded, "G'night, pierogi."

\---

Like she had for most of the day, Pearl found herself thinking about Amethyst.  She adjusted her gym bag and peered into the hand basket she'd picked up on the way into the store.  It was empty, save for a carton of milk she didn't remember picking up.  Pearl guessed she'd been standing in front of the little kiosk filled with flowers for too long, because she couldn't remember when she'd started that, either.  She glanced at the sticky note hanging from her finger and read the ingredients written in Amethyst's messy scrawl.  It was stuck to the fridge when she'd gotten up that morning, so she'd decided to get them when she was done with her fencing class that afternoon.

Despite her plans to actually get things done today, she kept getting distracted and staring off into space.  Somehow distracted by Amethyst, who wasn't even there. Who hadn't been on the couch that morning.  She shook her head free of that inevitable tangent and turned away from the mass of flowers, only to slowly backpedal when she remembered why she'd been standing there in the first place.

She grabbed a bag and a bunch, and tucked the combo into the basket next to the milk.  Rubbing her thumb against one of the petals, she continued to wander around the store with an occasional glance at the list that was now stuck to the basket.  

Pearl managed to avoid standing around like a zombie while replaying yesterday morning's events in her head, but she couldn't stop the giddy little smile whenever she thought about waking up with Amethyst so close that she could feel the rise and fall of her chest against her own.  The only downside to that whole memory was Amethyst's inability to feel her arm for most of the morning afterwards.  

Pearl was pulled out of the rerun by a blast of cold air when she left the store, and hugged the paper bag closer in one arm, while her other hand squeezed the stems of the bouquet.  

Something seemed off.  It made her spine prickle the whole walk home, and she looked over her hunched shoulders more than once.  She was sure no one was following her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.  This seemingly aimless unease spread to her thoughts about Amethyst, and how she hadn’t seen her roommate all day.  Pearl wrung her wrist and picked up the pace, almost jogging the last few minutes it took to get to her front door.

After a few moments of anxiously staring at the handle, she stuffed the flowers into the bag and held it in the crook of her left elbow, her opposite hand on the knob.  She took a deep breath, let it out, and pushed the door open.  

The first thing she saw was Amethyst lying on the couch with her back to the door.  A wiggle of relief made her sigh, but when she stepped over the landing, a strong smell of alcohol smacked her in the face and sent a brick through her stomach.  

“Mom?”

A thick sense of dread kicked Pearl into a state of defense.  She slammed the door shut so hard the paintings on the living room walls probably clattered on their nails.  Spinning on her heel, she tripped down the two steps to the path and fell to her knees, hugging the big paper bag with enough force to dent the carton of milk sitting inside.  Pearl took a shaky breath and held it, making painfully tight fists as she slammed her eyes closed and grit her teeth.  

She waited there, frozen, for a sound, a chilling voice, an impact, something… but nothing came.  It was just the crickets that started chirping at the end of the day, and the wind rustling what little grass there could be in her tiny front lawn.  

Slowly realizing she’d been had by her fight-or-flight response, Pearl pulled in more unsteady air and sobbed as her shoulders sank in relief.  Her mother wasn’t here, why would she be?  She could be dead, for all Pearl cared, but her ghost probably wouldn’t ever go away, not really.  

She sniffled and rubbed her tears away, only to see her vision blur when more replaced them.  Her legs were stiff, but she managed to cross them so that she could sit on her bottom with the paper bag in her lap and her gym bag sitting next to her.  

Pearl rubbed her sleeve across her eyes again and reached past her groceries with trembling fingers to fish out a lollipop.  She was glad that she’d bought it on a whim; hard candies were nice to chew when she felt the need to stim that way.  Her breath hitched as she continued to cry, but her eyelids fluttered when she started to gnaw on the candy.  Rocking back and forth helped her breathing slow down and find a regular rhythm after that minute or so of chaos.  

She sat there rocking for a long time, sometimes mumbling to herself, or smelling the bouquet she’d gotten for Amethyst.  The lollipop stick was chewed up and soggy by the time Pearl realized the sky had gotten quite dark.  Her legs weren’t as stiff as before, so getting up was easy.  Opening the door, on the other hand… that took a minute or so of psyching herself up.  

When the door finally creaked open, the smell wasn’t nearly as unexpected or debilitating.  It wasn’t even that strong, but it had been enough to send her flying in the other direction earlier.  

The door clicked shut, and one by one, Pearl set her burdens on the floor.  Her shoes joined them before she turned and faced Amethyst, who seemed to have rolled off of the couch at some point.  She pulled her collar up to cover her nose and mouth, and to stifle the prickly feeling that her paranoia would bubble over again.  

A sudden thought occurred that had avoided her while she was recovering outside: why had Amethyst done this?  She said she was okay, but maybe she was lying.  But why would she do that?  Wouldn’t it be better to tell Pearl about it instead of shoving it under the rug?

Pearl pushed the confusing thought away and focused on the person in front of her.  The sound of empty cans clattering as she pushed them away with her feet was unnaturally loud, and made her skin crawl.  Just breathe and help your friend who is certainly nothing like your mother.  Don’t think about your mother.  

She knelt down and turned Amethyst over.  She was very unconscious, and drooling.  Gross.  Pearl collected most of her weight in her arms and lifted her up, one arm under her knees, and the other under her shoulders.  

“Ooooh my god…” she groaned; lifting dead weight was surprisingly more difficult compared to another ballerina.  

Thunk.

Pearl hissed through her teeth like it was her head that had just been rammed into a wall and carefully moved Amethyst away from the doorframe, “Sorry!”

Amethyst wasn’t conscious to hear the apology, but she would probably feel that bump later.  Pearl navigated past two other doorways: the one from the kitchen to the hall, and the one that led to her room.  She huffed with relief when Amethyst flopped onto her bed, and then groaned when she noticed Amethyst still had her shoes on.  

“I swear…” Pearl pulled them off and set them neatly on the floor at the foot of the bed before considering what to do about the smell.  It was still making her uncomfortable, even if it was very faint.  She decided to sit Amethyst up and wrestle her jacket off, which helped once she’d chucked it into the hall.  It was pretty much gone after that, but Pearl sprayed her with a lot of air freshener, just to be sure.

Pearl set the can on her bedside table and fiddled with her bracelet.  She’d be livid if she wasn’t so worried.  Granted, she was still mad; she didn’t particularly like being reminded of childhood trauma, but she hoped Amethyst at least had a good reason for it.  She desperately hoped it wasn’t what she thought it was, but Amethyst wouldn’t have gotten piss drunk if something wasn’t seriously wrong, considering her history with it.  Pearl already knew she wouldn’t have a hard time forgiving her, but… there would be a talk.

Leaning against the bed, Pearl smoothed down Amethyst’s bangs as much as she could and placed a little kiss on her temple before retreating into the living room to clean up the mess she’d made.

\---

A hard jab in Amethyst’s side nearly sent her tumbling over the edge of what she quickly realized was a bed.  It took another moment for her tired brain to figure out that it was Pearl’s bed, and Pearl’s foot that had almost kicked her off.  

She grumbled and curiously prodded the weird blanket laying on top of her.  That and her jeans sticking to her with sleep sweat made her more aware of her surroundings.  Why did this bed smell like a fancy bathroom?  She felt like her tongue was made of cotton because of how difficult it was to swallow.  

Her stomach grew heavy as a sense of uneasiness settled in and turned into a sharp jolt of dread in the amount of time it took her to sit up.  She’d gotten drunk.  Pearl had been there to help and she’d gotten drunk.  

Amethyst stumbled off the bed and suppressed a whimper at the headache rattling around in her skull.   She tripped over something in the hall and made her way to the back yard.  Her breath was visible in what little light there was, with the moon mostly in shadow.  The steps creaked when she sat down and held her head, frustrated tears making little dark spots in the wood.  

“Shit.”  

She felt useless.  Why couldn’t she do anything right?  Pearl probably wouldn’t want her in her house anymore.  She wouldn't want anything to do with her now.  Amethyst would be kicked out of the only place she’d ever really felt at home.  She didn’t feel out of place here, finally, and then she’d gone and fucked it up.  Great job, asshole.

Amethyst curled up into a ball and wept quietly with her forehead against her knees.  She was scared.  And ashamed, and cold, but mostly disheartened by her lack of self control.  

She was there for a while, out in the cold.  It was difficult to know for sure how long; an hour could have passed and she wouldn’t have been able to tell.  

“You’re going to freeze out here.”

Amethyst leapt up at the sudden interruption.  She hadn’t heard Pearl come outside.  Her hair fell over her face as she turned her back and remained shamefully silent.  

Pearl seemed to be waiting for an answer, because she didn’t say anything for a while, either.  Every second of silence that ticked by further convinced Amethyst that she wasn’t welcome here anymore.

“Why did you do that?”  Pearl’s voice was unnaturally steady.  Angry.

Amethyst’s chin trembled before she covered her mouth with her hand.  She dragged the same hand up to smear the tears against her arm.  “I’m…” she took a breath, “I’m gonna go.”

“Buh- what?”  Pearl spun and followed Amethyst inside.

“Amethyst?”  

She kept walking.

“Amethyst.”

They were halfway down the hall now.

“Amethyst.”

She swiped up her jacket on her way into the kitchen.

“Amethyst, STOP!”

Amethyst froze in the living room entryway, suddenly rooted to the spot.  She’d never heard Pearl shout like that before.  It was still echoing against the kitchen walls when she spoke again.  

“You can't just scare the crap out of me and then leave!  Why would you do that?!"

Frustrated tears continued to flow, and she spun on Pearl with a wave of misdirected anger.  “Why would you want me to stay?!”

Pearl stepped back in surprise and held her hands up like she was being attacked.  

“I messed up, Pearl!  I’m not- I’m not good enough for you, okay?!  Just let me go be useless somewhere else!”

Amethyst stood there, panting and staring defiantly up at Pearl, afraid of what she was going to do.  

"Wha-? Ih- no," Pearl's surprised expression turned into something akin to frustration.

The hands she’d held up were now fists, and the look on her face suggested that she’d taken offense to something Amethyst had said.  Her hands swung down to her sides and twitched before one of them reached out and grabbed the collar of Amethyst’s shirt.  A twist of fear in her stomach made Amethyst flinch like she was going to be hit, but Pearl reeled her in for a hug instead.  

“Amethyst… you’re not perfect,” Pearl rasped, “but you are more than good enough for me.”

Amethyst blinked tears away and watched the ceiling come in and out of focus.  Pearl didn't want her to go away.  Why?  Was she lying?  Some bad part of her was saying so, but Pearl was still there.  She hadn’t just let her go… she’d practically screamed at her to make her stop leaving.  

Pearl didn’t want her to go away.  

Confusion became relief with the first steady breath she could remember taking since she’d woken up.  She felt a sob well up from the center of her chest and let it out into Pearl’s shoulder.  “I’m so-rry,” she stammered.  

“I know,” Pearl switched her arms around so that she was hugging Amethyst around her waist.  She had to be on her toes for this to work, but Amethyst didn’t care.  At least they weren’t yelling anymore.  

"I didn't mean it, I'm sorry," was muffled against Pearl's nightshirt, which was getting soggy from all of the crying.  

Pearl nodded and then pulled the hug apart a bit, much to Amethyst's discomfort.  The inside of Pearl’s wrists were warm against Amethyst’s face as she wiped away tears.  The cold that had seeped in a minute ago still hadn’t left.  

“Come on,” Pearl tugged her by the hand towards her room.  Amethyst followed hesitantly at first, and then with more confidence as Pearl laced their fingers together.  She squeezed Amethyst’s hand rhythmically as she led them to her bedroom.  The cyclical pressure seemed to keep her grounded.

Pearl pulled the other past her and shut the door with a soft click.  She didn’t let go of Amethyst’s hand, but she kept her distance after turning her back to the door.  The pulse slowed down and turned into kneading as the silence grew.  

Amethyst wondered if she had lied about not wanting her to leave, because she still seemed mad, but shoved that poisonous thought away and squeezed Pearl’s hand to replace it with a little confidence.  

She pushed the next few words out with less of that assuredness than she would have liked, wiping fresh tears away with the back of her hand.  “Were you- are you mad at me?”

Pearl answered matter-of-factly, “Of course,” and failed to elaborate.  It made Amethyst scared all over again.  

“Whu-?” she shook her head, which made her a small bit dizzy.  “Would you mind adding on to that?”

“Oh! Sorry-” she cleared her throat, “I’m mad because you scared me.  And because you didn’t say anything.  About this.”  She made herself seem taller as she spoke, probably to muster up the bravery to speak at all, like Amethyst had with her question.  

She pursed her lips at their intertwined hands as she continued.  “I know… I’m not the best at… this- yet, but… I’m here… I’m right here.  Just talk to me.”

For the second time since they’d met, Amethyst had the overwhelming need to drag Pearl down by her collar and kiss her hard.  That might not have been the best idea when Pearl was still mad, so she gulped and pushed the impulse down far enough for it to fade a bit.  

“Uuhh…” she suddenly felt like she’d eaten sand, so she nodded instead of talking for a second.  The gesture bought her time to gulp, “Okay,” she took a shaky breath and nodded again, “I can do that.”  She said this more like a command to herself than a reassurance towards Pearl.  After a moment’s hesitation, she shuffled closer and was glad to see Pearl do the same.  

“Promise?”

Amethyst nodded vehemently and scooted forward until her cheek was against Pearl’s chest.  “I promise.”

Pearl wrapped her up in a hug and sighed, “Okay... I forgive you.”

Amethyst melted into the warmth and just let herself breathe… deep, and calm, and safe.  They swayed gently for a second, before Pearl parted the hug and gestured towards the bed.  “We should go back to sleep, it’s late.”

Amethyst blinked in the direction Pearl was pointing and turned back to focus on a little curl of hair behind her ear.  “Uh, really?”

Pearl seemed confused by Amethyst’s reply, “Well, yes, it must be past midnight by now.”

“That’s not- uhm,” a mix between a cough and a laugh came from the back of her throat, “I meant, don’t you have your blanket here?  You don’t really need me to sleep with you.”

Pearl raised her shoulders in a constant shrug, “Well, I don’t need you to, but…” they sank, only to hitch up again, higher this time.  “I-it’s nice.  And… yeah.”

Amethyst blinked at the other for a second and felt her face get warm.  A smile pulled on the corner of her mouth before she could stop it.  “You’re such a dork, P,” her voice sounded funny, like she was listening to a recording of herself.  

“So you tell me,” Pearl turned on her heel with a grin that barely caught Amethyst’s attention before stepping lightly around the bed.  

Amethyst went to the other side and flopped unceremoniously onto the covers.  “'s true.”  Her eyes fluttered open when she felt a small kiss on her forehead, but snapped shut because of accidental eye contact.  “Oop- sorry.”

She heard Pearl laugh it off with an apprehensive hitch in her voice, “It’s alright.”  She shifted and planted another little peck on Amethyst’s cheek before retreating to tangle her fingers in the other’s hair.  

Amethyst arched her back a tiny bit in response and risked a peek through her bangs.  Pearl seemed lost in troubled thought, but still managed to be beautiful with bedhead and sleepy purple bags under her eyes.  Amethyst turned over and pushed herself up to sit on her heels.  With trepidation, she lifted Pearl’s hand and placed a slow, soft kiss onto the center of her palm.  

“Aa- ehhm- mm,” Pearl’s surprised and flustered exclamation drifted into silence as Amethyst kissed her again on the heel of her hand, and a third time on her wrist.  

All of a sudden, Pearl captured a fistful of Amethyst’s hair, and tilted her head up so that she could return the favor.  Amethyst was struck dizzy, and had to steady herself on the Pearl’s legs, which were crossed in front of her.  

Pearl pulled away after a moment, and Amethyst noticed her nose was scrunched up like she’d just bitten into a lemon.  “You need to brush your teeth, Amethyst.”

A huge, surprised cackle burst from the bottom of Amethyst's stomach and against Pearl’s chin before she leaned away.  “Droppin’ those hints like a pro, babe.”

“Ehh…” Pearl’s embarrassed expression flushed as she continued wiltingly, “We-ell, it’s true.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes playfully, “I believe you.”  She rubbed her cheek, a little self-conscious despite her jovial reaction.  Her voice was gentler than before, “Sorry, be right back.”

She shuffled off of the bed and walked with pseudo leisure out of the room and down the hall, but when she was out of Pearl’s line of sight, she hurried to the bathroom at the back of the house.  After brushing her teeth, she considered doing it again, but kicked that train of thought away before going to the line of clothes above the washing machine.  There was a place to hang hangers there, like in a closet, but it was set into an open wall with space underneath for the washer/dryer set.  This was where Amethyst kept most of her clothes.  Hey, at least she had someplace to put them.

Amethyst nearly tripped over herself getting into her pyjamas- the tank top Rose had let her keep after that sleepover thing a day or two ago was becoming a favorite.  She stopped short before she walked into the hall and suppressed a giddy sigh.  This was real.  She had a sort-of home, and Pearl, and everything was gonna be okay.  She hoped so, anyway.

“Hey, Princess Pea, you better get ready for some awesome fuckin’ blanket skills!” she called from a ways away from Pearl’s open door as she approached it.  

Pearl laughed and peeked into the hall from under her covers, “You’re really getting creative with these nicknames.”

Amethyst hung onto the doorframe and swung inside, “Just ‘princess,’ then?”

Pearl laughed into her hand with a tint to her cheeks and some of her nose.  She patted the spot next to her and rocked back to relax against the headboard.  Amethyst gulped the butterflies that came floating into her throat and flicked off the light before padding over to the bed.  

Just as she was about to jump up, something on the bedside table caught her eye.  It was the file.  The open file.  A wave of mixed emotions made her pause and knit her brow at it, until Pearl reached over and flipped it shut.  

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have- I was-”

“What?”

Pearl flapped her hands and tugged at her hair, “I was trying to figure out- if I could- get you to want to talk to- one of them.  I thought i-if I knew- sorry.  Sorry.  It was dumb, I shouldn’t have- sorry.”

“It’s okay, I get it,”  Amethyst hopped up and nearly bowled Pearl over with a hug, “You don’t have to snoop.  I’ll deal with it in the mornin’.”

Pearl sounded shakily relieved, “We.  We’ll deal with it in the morning.”

Amethyst felt a wiggly smile overtake her and hummed, “Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/132974493565/taken-for-your-word


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cuddling n such

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's back wow
> 
> Updates are still gonna be spaced out because i have no concept of a routine rn, so here's a little island in the middle of the river

Pearl had been lying awake for a while now, trying and failing to get up.  She was stuck on ‘look for Amethyst,’ and now that she’d found her sleeping a little to her left, it was hard to switch from that to ‘sit up.’  Maybe breaking the action apart would help.  Pearl told herself to turn her head, and then to move her arms, then to push herself up, and finally to move her hands so that they were in her lap.  There.  

She blinked groggily at her fingers and yawned.  What came after this?  Pearl rubbed the pad of her thumb against her wrist and thought about her hands for another minute or so.  She wanted to go back to sleep.  

Amethyst shifted, bringing Pearl’s train of thought full circle.  Her breathing was deep and slow.  She looked so comfy.  Pearl prompted herself to move, and then tucked her left arm underneath Amethyst’s head, sliding her right around her waist.  She realized a little too late that she could have been gentler with these actions, because Amethyst stirred.  

“Give… mm… orang… es…”

Pearl smiled softly at Amethyst’s sleep-talk and squeezed her around her middle.  Amethyst’s back was warm against Pearl’s belly; it made her feel safe, and it was easier to drift off again.  

“Pearl?”  

Amethyst’s once slurred voice was now clear as a bell, if a little drowsy.  

Pearl felt as if she’d just travelled through time; she was very warm and almost too comfortable up against Amethyst’s back, her mind a fog with the kind of sleep that made opening her eyes a chore.  

“Uuhnh?”

“When did we start spooning?” Amethyst sounded very confused, but not unhappy.  

Pearl should have been too dazed for sarcasm, but she managed it somehow and mumbled, “Couple hundred years ago, probably.”

Amethyst must have tensed as she’d woken up, because Pearl felt her relax into the contact.  “How’d ya figure?”

“I feel like I’ve made a me-shaped indentation in this bed.“  Pearl’s drawl was muffled by Amethyst’s hair.  

A pleasant buzz started in the pit of Pearl’s stomach when Amethyst laughed.  They didn’t talk for a minute or so, and Pearl dozed until Amethyst shifted and knocked her awake.  

Pearl stretched happily, suddenly feeling the need to move, and realized with an odd noise that their legs were tangled together.  

Amethyst giggled, “Your legs are scratchy.”

Pearl settled back into her place against Amethyst’s back, “So are yours.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  

Pearl was a little irritated when Amethyst started to turn over, depriving her of some warmth, but her mind went blank when their lips were suddenly pressed together.  She could tell her own were dry from sleep, but Amethyst broke away to kiss a trail across her cheek so quickly that all she got was that hers were soft.  

A breathy laugh escaped her when Amethyst got to her earlobe.  “Amethyst,” Pearl squirmed for a second, but straightened as the trail led down her neck.  She lifted her chin and pursed her lips to suppress a small hum.  Pearl couldn’t think of anything to do, so she just held still.   Well, mostly.  She fidgeted with the back of Amethyst’s shirt and kneaded her shoulder through the fabric.  

“You’re really warm,” Amethyst said.  She had stopped kissing Pearl’s neck at some point and busied her hands with scratching the small of her back through her shirt.  

“‘S because of you.  ‘M usually cold.”  Pearl wasn’t speaking as clearly as she normally did; Amethyst’s backrub and her still-present exhaustion from the night before made anything but laying there with her eyes half closed seem complicated and fuzzy.  

“D’you _wanna_ be cold?” Amethyst tilted her head up a bit, waiting for a reply.  

“Mm-mm,” Pearl shook her head no and moved her arm- the one that wasn’t trapped underneath Amethyst’s head- and hugged her loosely around her shoulders.  

“Okay,” Amethyst wiggled closer and continued the backrub.  Pearl hadn’t noticed it stop in the first place, and stared at a tuft of dyed hair resting against her nose; confused, but enjoying the feeling of being cross-eyed, like she was stretching a stiff muscle.  

Amethyst said something after a while, but Pearl didn’t understand.  She didn’t answer,  and then felt the top of Amethyst’s head against her chin.

“Pearl?”

“Whu- huh?”

“Did you fall asleep?”

Pearl moved her hands in an attempt to clear her head.  “NnI don’t… think so.”

“You doin’ okay?” she drew little circles against Pearl’s lower back, and then pressed her whole hand flat against it when Pearl arched it in response.  

“Wha’d you mean?”

Pearl noticed Amethyst’s voice get a little quieter, “Y-you seem… kinda out of it.”

“‘M sleepy,” Pearl said matter-of-factly.  

“That’s fair,” Amethyst shrugged.  

“Mm.”

Pearl let the left half of her face sink into her pillow again and shivered when Amethyst continued to scratch little circles into her back through her t-shirt.  

“Is this okay?” Amethyst’s voice was still soft.  

“Which… thing?” Pearl asked.  She tilted her head down so that the end of her sentence was spoken into the top of Amethyst’s head.  

“Backscratch.”

“It’s good.”

It was Amethyst’s turn to hum in response.  The conversation petered off into a comfortable silence that was only disturbed by the occasional sigh or shift.  

Pearl was okay with staying like this- possibly forever- but she knew she had something to do today that wasn’t lying in bed.  “I have to get up,” she said, making no move to do so.  

Amethyst giggled, “You don’t sound very excited about that.”

“‘M not,” Pearl grumbled.  

“When d’you have to leave?”

“Nn…” Pearl thought for a moment, “Afternoon.”

Amethyst peeked over Pearl’s shoulder and then settled back down. “It’s only eleven.  You don’t have to get up yet.”

“Mm,” Pearl huffed, “Good.”

Amethyst laughed against Pearl’s collarbone and sent a prickly heat up the skin of her neck.  

“You okay?” the hand on Pearl’s lower back flattened again.  

“Yeah,” Pearl mumbled, “’m _very_ okay.”

Amethyst tucked her head underneath Pearl’s chin and didn’t answer.  

_“You_ okay?” Pearl mumbled.  

Amethyst nodded against Pearl’s chest and continued drawing swirly patterns into her back.  Pearl hummed, satisfied with that answer, and they stayed fit together for longer than Pearl could keep track of.  

\---

Amethyst heard a key move the tumblers in the lock to the front door, but she didn’t really react to it.  The door opened, and she heard Pearl shuffle about before walking towards the kitchen.  Her footsteps stopped halfway to the couch, and Amethyst blinked.  

“Uhm.  Are you okay?” Pearl asked.  

“Yeah, I’m fine.  Why?”

“You’re on the floor.”

This was true.  Amethyst had been laying down in various places around the house since Pearl had left for rehearsal.  She wasn’t sure how long she’d been facedown on the floor, but it was long enough for the carpet to become uncomfortable.  

Pearl’s footsteps got nearer, and then Amethyst was being rolled over.  Amethyst squinted up at her in a general daze and raised her eyebrows in an attempt to smile.  The look on Pearl’s face at this made her smile for real, “What?”

“Come on,” Pearl lifted her into a sitting position and carried her bridal-style onto the couch.  

Amethyst sort of yelped and wrapped her arms around Pearl’s neck, practically attaching herself to her.  

Pearl chuckled and sat with Amethyst in her lap.  “What’d you do today?”

“Nothin’.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nnope.”  Amethyst popped the ‘p’ and buried her face in Pearl’s neck.  

Pearl hummed like she had something to say about that, but she let the conversation go.  Amethyst’s daze continued in earnest, and she didn’t say anything either.  

“Do you feel bad still?”

Amethyst answered Pearl in her head, but she couldn’t talk anymore, so she just shrugged.  That alone took a lot of effort, so she sagged a bit afterward.  

Pearl fiddled with Amethyst’s shirt for a moment, and then she tilted her head down to kiss her on the cheek.  A dull warmth stirred in Amethyst’s chest, but she didn’t feel it as strongly as she usually did.  

“Would you like me to call you ‘baby’ until you feel better?” Pearl mumbled.  

“Oh my god.”  This got a genuine reaction out of Amethyst, and she hid her face against Pearl’s chest.  

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Amethyst started laughing, and Pearl hugged her a little tighter.  

“Why are you laughing, honey?” 

Tears slid down and joined Amethyst’s smile, but Pearl hadn’t noticed yet.  When she finally got Amethyst to look up, she tensed a bit.  Amethyst blushed and hiccuped into Pearl’s hand as her tears were wiped away.  A giggle stumbled out of Amethyst’s mouth with a small sob tying it down when Pearl kissed her cheek, and then the corner of her eye.  

Amethyst sniffed and tried to wipe her face by pulling up the collar of her shirt.  “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Pearl circled her arms around Amethyst and started rocking, “It’s okay.”

Amethyst tried to focus on the movement and Pearl’s hug, and eventually she was just sniffling and thinking about Pearl.  

“Do you want me to get you some water?”

“Don’t leave yet.”

“Okay.”

They sat there and rocked for a while, Pearl humming little snatches of things Amethyst didn’t recognize.  

“What do you want for dinner?”

Amethyst shrugged.  Her head was still fuzzy.  

“Should I order a pizza?”

“Okay.”

“Mm.”

They rocked some more.  

“Do you want one of those little cake-pizzas they have?”

Amethyst laughed once, half hollow and half endeared.  “Yeah.”

“I’ll get one for you, then,” Pearl kissed Amethyst’s face again and started rubbing her back.  

Amethyst wrapped her arms around Pearl’s neck and anchored herself there, “Thank you.”

“Mmhm.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that "How'd ya figure?" is a reference to Eight Drinks (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5044222/chapters/11597554) cause i love that fic and making references  
> Also sorry about the second notes section on this chapter, that's the notes on chapter one and i can't figure out how to get it to fuck off

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read this on tumblr if you want: http://yarnwithpictures.tumblr.com/post/115237267895/taken-for-your-word


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